Ann Thorac Surg 1996;61:1837-1838
© 1996 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Invited Commentary
Invited Commentary
Mark Silen, MD
Division of Pediatric Surgery Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital 1465 South Grand Blvd St. Louis, MO 63104
See also page 1836.
Doctor Mezzetti and his colleagues present an interesting case report of an otherwise healthy full-term infant with an intralobar pulmonary sequestration involving the right lower lobe. At 6 months of age, a video-assisted thoracoscopic right lower lobectomy was performed without complication.
Video-assisted thoracoscopy has become an appealing surgical technique during the past several years. The aesthetic and functional outcome after video-assisted thoracoscopic procedures is generally better than that after a standard open thoracotomy. Although liberal application of this surgical technique is tempting, great caution should be exercised in infants. Serious and life-threatening blood loss may result from pulmonary hilar dissection in any infant, and video-assisted thoracoscopic lobar resection should not be viewed as the standard of care for these lesions except in the most experienced of hands. I congratulate Mezzetti and colleagues on their technical accomplishment, but I caution against the adoption of video-assisted thoracoscopic lobar resection as a standard of care in infants.
Related Article
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Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Resection of Pulmonary Sequestration in an Infant
- Maurizio Mezzetti, Carlo A. Dell'Agnola, Marilia Bedoni, Roberto Cappelli, Franco Fumagalli, and Tiziana Panigalli
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 1996 61: 1836-1837.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
