DISSEMINATION OF MALIGNANT-TUMORS AFTER VIDEO-ASSISTED THORACIC-SURGERY - A REPORT OF 21 CASES

Video-assisted thoracic surgical techniques are widely used for biopsy and resection of thoracic tumors, but studies of long-term outcomes h ave not been reported, Dissemination of tumor by these techniques is a potential hazard, Therefore we surveyed the surgical members of the V ideo-Assisted Thoracic Surgery Study Group to determine whether tumor implants thought to he directly related to video-assisted techniques h ad occurred. Surgeons reported 21 cases, The sites of recurrence were the incision (n = 14), pulmonary staple line (n = 2), pleura (n = 2), both staple line and incision (n = 1), both pleura and incision (n = 1 ), and both pleura and staple line (n = 1), Review of these cases illu strates the pitfalls of present video-assisted techniques for malignan t tumors of the thorax.