Non-intubated uniportal lung surgery†

Abstract

Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (uniVATS) is currently being used to diagnose and treat several intrathoracic conditions with minimal morbidity and reduced hospital stay compared with standard multiport VATS surgery. The potential advantages of uniVATS can be also enhanced by the adoption of loco-regional anaesthesiological techniques in non-intubated or awake patients yielding the possibility of performing an ever larger proportion of thoracic surgical procedures in an outpatient setting. This review will look at organizational and technical aspects of implementing a non-intubated uniVATS program.

Keywords: Awake surgery; Non-intubated; Single port; Thoracoscopy; Uniportal.