Lobectomía videotoracoscópica en el tratamiento del cáncer de pulmón

introduction: the video-thoracoscopic access to resection of lung cancer is an alternative for the open surgery for a disease in i and ii stages. objective: to value the implementation of this technique in our environment and thus, authors studied the following variables: tumor location, surgical time, open surgery conversion, bleeding, type of resection, incision size, hospital stay, morbility and mortality. methods: a descriptive study was conducted in patients presenting with lung carcinoma, seen in the "hermanos ameijeiras" clinical surgical hospital from october, 2009 to march, 2010 and from january-february, 2011 to analyze the situation of 5 patients with 5 cm or less malignant tumors of peripheral location but without infiltration of the thoracic wall, mediastinal or hilum-pulmonary disease and also without a previous surgery of the involved hemithorax. results: four patients underwent a pulmonary lobectomy and another one a middle and inferior bi-lobectomy. the surgical time fluctuates between 210 and 420 min, with a mean of 330. there was neither conversion nor surgical accident. the incision size varied from 2.5 to 3.8 cm with a mean of 3.5. a patient with bronchoalveolar adenocarcinoma and positive mediastinal ganglia deceased at 4 months due metastatic disease. conclusions: the video-thoracoscopic pulmonary resection from pulmonary cancer is feasible and of a immediate benefit for the patient in our environment.