Advances in Minimally Invasive Surgery for Lung Cancer

Abstract

Over the last 25 years, improvement in instrumentation and surgical techniques has led to widespread adaptation of thoracoscopic (VATS) surgery in the field of thoracic oncology. What once was a niche operation like VATS wedge resection to now hybrid VATS chest wall resections, and advanced surgeries like bronchoplasty and sleeve resections are done with VATS. This has led to improved surgical outcomes for our patients and increased use of surgery in the treatment of chest disease. We review the history of VATS and its current state with most recent changes and upgrades in the technique in this chapter. We review the advancement in uniportal VATS, robotic assisted resection, complex VATS resection, and awake lung surgery with VATS.