The results of video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomies in Saint Petersburg, Russia: 20-year of experience.

Background: During the period from 1996 to 2016, we have performed 281 thymectomies in patients with various diseases of the thymus. In 179 patients, thymic pathology was associated with autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG), and, in 108 patients, thymoma was diagnosed.

Methods: The majority of surgeries [254] were performed using video thoracoscopy, 79 of them with an additional cervical approach.

[Thoracic endometriosis--the rare pathology in thoracic surgery].

Thoracic hematogenic endometriosis is a rare pathology. A clinical course hasn't pathognomic symptoms, because of it, the diagnosis is established due to histological study. The article presented two cases of female patients, who were suffering from thoracic endometriosis.

[The first successful bilateral lung transplantation in Russia].

Lung transplantation is one of the most difficult fields of contemporary transplantology. The operation was performed on a 53-year-old female who had been suffering from terminal stage COPD. The period of cold ischemia for the right and left lung was 1 hour 30 minutes and 2 hours 25 minutes respectively.

[Diagnostic and treatment strategy for patients with the first episode of primary spontaneous pneumothorax].

A retrospective analysis of 198 patients (164 men and 28 women) with the first episode of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) was made. All the patients underwent diagnostic thoracoscopy (DT) under local anesthesia before insertion of a chest tube. For 115 patients the chest tube thoracoscopy was the only treatment procedure (group I) and 77 patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) wedge (atypical) resection and pleurectomy (group II).