The current review focuses on a clinical comparison of lobectomy by means of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and open lobectomy. The best available evidence strongly suggests that VATS lobectomy is less morbid than open lobectomy, and that VATS lobectomy is less immunosuppressive and elicits a milder inflammatory response than open lobectomy. Midterm to long-term oncologic results of patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer appear to be equivalent for VATS and open lobectomy. Because a large, prospective, randomized, multiinstitutional trial of open versus VATS lobectomy will likely never take place, we are dependent on the summarized information to draw practical conclusions.
2010 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.