Thoracoscopic surgery in a general surgical service

Following the great success and wide acceptance of laparoscopic surgery, th e mini-invasive approach has been adopted for use in thoracic surgery. Thor acoscopic surgery is gaining acceptability as the procedure of choice for t he treatment of recurrent pneumothorax and bullous lung disease, peripheral benign and malignant lesions, diffuse pulmonary infiltrates, mediastinal a nd pleural lesions, esophageal surgery, and major pulmonary resections for primary lung tumors. We present the 4-year experience of a general surgery service that extended the use of its advanced laparoscopic skills to the pe rformance of thoracoscopic surgery in 80 patients. Using thoracoscopy, we p erformed biopsy or excision of pulmonary lesions (23 patients), spontaneous pneumothorax (14 patients), thoracic sympathectomy (41 patients), and Hell er's esophagomyotomy and pericardiotomy (1 patient each). The results are e xcellent, and we believe the procedures presented in this series, and simil ar ones, can be accomplished safely and successfully by well-trained laparo scopic surgeons.