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Ann Thorac Surg 2001;72:322
© 2001 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Correspondence

Pulmonary function and prognosis: VATS versus thoracotomy

Robert F. Dunton, MDa a Wichita Clinic, 3311 East Murdock, Wichita, KS 67208, USA

To the Editor

An article appearing in the November 2000 issue of The Annals [1] reported several beneficial effects of video-assisted thoracic surgery. This report seems so flawed, however, it is hard to consider it anything more than a summary of the authors’ personal experience of several routine cases. The comparison of pulmonary function testing between their treatment group and a completely undefined "open thoracotomy" group is without scientific merit. Even more difficult to fathom is the attempt to claim a statistically significant improvement in 5-year survival data, again based on a comparison made with a completely undefined group of patients. The suggestion that less invasive surgical procedures will lead to a less "favorable environment for malignant cell growth" borders on "magical thinking," and as such has no place in modern surgical publications. I do agree with the author’s first line in their last paragraph: only randomized, multiinstitutional trials are capable of demonstrating the superiority of any one treatment over another, and are the only proper work worthy of attention in our literature.

References

  1. Kaseda S., Aoki T., Hangai N., Shimizu K. Better pulmonary function and prognosis with video-assisted thoracic surgery than with thoracotomy. Ann Thorac Surg 2000;70:1644-1646.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Related Article

Pulmonary function and prognosis: VATS versus thoracotomy: Reply
Shizuka Kaseda, Teruhiro Aoki, Nanae Hangai, and Kunihiko Shimizu
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2001 72: 322. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]




This Article
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