Clinical feasibility and surgical benefits of video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy in the treatment of resectable lung cancer

Objective: This study was performed to assess the clinical feasibility and surgical outcomes of video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy in the treatment of resectable lung cancer. Methods: Between July 2004 and December 2009, we retrospectively analyzed 108 consecutive video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomies in lung cancer patients from a prospectively collected database. Ninety-seven (89.8%) patients underwent combined operation during the same anesthesia and six (5.3%) patients underwent a staged operation for the resection of lung cancer and systematic lymphadenectomy. We reviewed the indication and duration of video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy, its complication, combined or staged operation type, the number of dissected lymph nodes and nodal stations, and pathologic staging of the mediastinal node. Results: Mean operative time of video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy was 39.8 ± 12.3 min (range of 14–85 min). Mean number of resected lymph nodes was 16.0 ± 7.7 (range of 3–37). In video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy, the rates of lymph node dissection of stations 4R, 4L, and 7 were 71.3%, 88.0%, and 100%, respectively, whereas the rates of dissection of lymph nodes in station 2R and 2L were only 22.2% and 17.6%, respectively. There was no operative mortality. We identified five complications of recurrent nerve palsy. Conclusions: Video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy is a clinically feasible procedure with acceptable complication rate and provides more accurate staging of mediastinal node in lung cancer patients. It may be also an excellent supplementary technique used for complete mediastinal node dissection at minimal invasive surgery for cancer resection, especially with left-sided video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy.