PANAJI
Manipal Hospitals, Goa, has successfully completed a Video Assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), a one-of-its-kind surgery for lung cancer, in Goa. The surgery was performed on an 80-year-old female patient who was diagnosed with right side lung cancer.
The doctors who were part of this surgery said that through VATS technique, the tumor and the involved lobe of lung was entirely removed. Complete mediastinal lymph node removal was done to reduce the risk of recurrence. The procedure was completed with minimal blood loss.
Six hours after the successful VATS operation the patient was able to move around pain free. The chest tube was removed later on third day and she was discharged on the fourth day.
Dr. Sredharan M, Operating Surgeon, said, “VATS is a minimally invasive method to remove cancers inside the chest with much lesser post-surgery pain, lesser blood loss, faster recovery and fewer complications. It is much easily tolerated compared to open surgery especially in elderly. It is done for early-stage lung cancer, esophagus (food pipe) cancer, removal of metastases from lung in selected stage IV cancers. This method has revolutionized lung cancer surgery in the past decade.”
