The author of this editorial offers a thoughtful commentary on the value and cost related to the use of robotic compared to other minimally invasive approaches to common diseases, as exemplified in two recent publications.
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Thoracic
October 24, 2017
From one of the few relatively unbiased sources of information regarding surgical treatment of pleural mesothelioma, the authors describe populations of patients undergoing EPP or P/D and their outcomes. Survival was compared between propensity matched cohorts, demonstrating no difference in OS.
October 24, 2017
Surgical treatment of metastatic disease, particularly lung cancer metastases, is often controversial. This article reviews the literature on therapeutic surgical interventions, and comments on diagnostic, palliative, and consolidation roles for surgery in patients with stage IV NSCLC.
October 24, 2017
A useful reminder of the substantial progress that has been made and the continuing challenges that we face in fighting this terrible disease.
October 23, 2017
This video demonstrates the first stage of a minimally invasive Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. The author describes the advantages of the hand port for this portion of the procedure.
October 20, 2017
Helminen and colleagues employ near-infrared imaging as a novel technique for lymphatic mapping in minimally invasive esophagectomy of distal esophageal cancer. Indocyanine green dye was injected endoscopically and used to identify nodal stations outside of the en bloc resection area.
October 19, 2017
Find it here: The 4th International VATS Symposium streams live from London on CTSNet. Join the conversation with #InternationalVATS.
October 18, 2017
The authors report the non-intuitive finding that blood from female donors who had ever been pregnant was associated with increased mortality among male recipients (HR 1.13). If validated by other studies, might this substantially complicate matching donated blood with appropriate recipients? Clearly the underlying mechanism will be interesting to
October 18, 2017
The author decries what he sees as the corporatization of airline pilots, with their accompanying loss of autonomy and prestige. He speculates on whether a similar future is ahead for physicians, but does not provide specific suggestions on how to avoid this from occurring.
October 16, 2017
Very nice paper that, once again, demonstrates established experience with awake thoracic surgery. Is this the future? Does a minimally invasive surgeon need a minimally invasive anesthesiologist beside?