Uniportal Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery

VATS (Video-assisted thoracic surgery) is a video-assisted surgery performed on the organs in the chest cavity by use of a long lens along with a special long surgical instrument inserted between the ribs without stretching the ribs. All of the instruments enter through a wound sized about 3-4 centimeters around the back of the areola. This surgery uses advanced surgical techniques, and the surgeon must be highly skilled with prior experience of performing video-assisted surgeries with 2 and 3 portals. Accordingly, this technique is known as “uniportal VATS”, and it is different from other surgeries of the past, since it causes the patient to experience minimal pain post-surgery, produces only small wounds and allows the person to return to work more quickly, due to not requiring cutting of the bones. Furthermore, the average hospital recovery period for this type of surgery is only 1-3 days, and patients who receive this type of surgery experience less pain than 3-portal surgery patients even as their surgical outcomes are the same.