Technological aids in uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.

With the evolution of uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), the technological aids have come to help skill surgeons to improve the results in thoracic surgery and feasible to perform a complex surgery. The technological aids are divided into three important groups, which make surgical steps easy to perform, besides reducing surgical time and surgical accidents in the hands of experienced surgeons. The groups are: (I) conventional thoracoscopic instruments; (II) sealing devices using in uniportal VATS; (III) high definition cameras, robotic arms prototype and the future robotic aids for uniportal VATS surgery.

Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic right upper sleeve lobectomy and tracheoplasty in a 10-year-old patient.

Tracheobronchial pediatric tumors are very rare and procedures like pneumonectomy are seldomly indicated due to the associated morbidity. If a surgical approach is considered, the ideal oncological technique would be the minimally invasive sleeve resection, allowing preservation of lung parenchyma (very important in pediatric patients). Here we present the first report of a thoracoscopic right upper tracheo-bronchial sleeve lobectomy in a pediatric patient.