Dissemination of malignant tumors after video-assisted thoracic surgery: A report of twenty-one cases

Video-assisted thoracic surgical techniques are widely used for biopsy and resection of thoracic tumors, but studies of long-term outcomes have not been reported, Dissemination of tumor by these techniques is a potential hazard, Therefore we surveyed the surgical members of the Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery Study Group to determine whether tumor implants thought to he directly related to video-assisted techniques had 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 illustrates the pitfalls of present video-assisted techniques for malignant tumors of the thorax.