Recovery of lung function after segmentectomy versus lobectomy for early-stage lung cancer

A cross-sectional study: analysis of anatomical variation in the right upper lung intersegmental vein V2a based on a 3D reconstruction technique

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to summarize and analyze the anatomical structures of the right upper lung intersegmental vein V2a based on 3-dimensional (3D) reconstruction technology.

METHODS

We collected the enhanced computed tomography (CT) scans of 157 patients with pulmonary diseases, and reconstructed the right upper lung tissue structure through interactive qualitative and quantitative analysis (IQQA). According to the reconstruction results, the V2a of the right upper pulmonary intersegmental vein was returned to different veins for classification, and the subtypes were further subdivided according to the different vascular routes and the location of the pulmonary segmental bronchus.

RESULTS

Among 157 patients, there were 4 types of V2a according to the anatomical position of the veins. In type B (15 cases, 9.6%), V2a returned to the apical vein V1. In type C (2 cases, 1.3%), V2a did not exist, while in type D (1 case, 0.6%), V2a directly flowed into the right atrium. Type A is further divided into three subtypes (A1, A2, A3) according to the type of veins returned and the anatomical location of their confluence. In subtype A1 (110/139 cases, 79.1%), V2a returned to the posterior segment central vein. In subtype A2 (8/139 cases, 5.8%), V2a flowed from the B2 mediastinal surface down to the interlobular part of the posterior segmental vein. In subtype A3 (21/139 cases, 15.1%), V2a flowed between B1a and B2a and back to the central vein at the junction of the B2 and B3 bronchus. Type B is further divided into 3 subtypes (B1, B2, B3) according to the location of the apical posterior segmental bronchus. In B1 subtype (1/15 cases, 6.7%), V2a continued from the mediastinal surface of B1 back down to V1. In B2 subtype (7/15 cases, 46.7%), V2a continued from the medial side of the B1 lung back down to V1. In subtype B3 (7/15 cases, 46.7%), V2a flowed back into the central part of the posterior segmental vein.

CONCLUSIONS

This study, supported by 3D reconstruction technology, preliminarily summarized the V2a typology and further refined the anatomical differences of each subtype.

Anatomical segmentectomy under uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for early staged non-small cell lung cancer: a case report

Background

Anatomical segmentectomy has become more and more universal in thoracic surgery because of the increasing detection of pulmonary nodules with ground-glass opacity (GGO), most of which proved early staged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) postoperative. With the advantage of preservation of normal lung tissues, segmentectomy may be performed by surgeons when computed tomography (CT) scan shows pure GGO or multiple GGOs appearing. Especially when the patients with poor cardiopulmonary function or severe comorbidities or in the circumstance of bilateral pulmonary GGOs, segmentectomy can provide opportunities to radically resect all lesions. With the development of minimally invasive surgery technology, uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has become the regular operative route in many medical centers because it can provide less access trauma, less stress response, less pain, shorter hospital stays, and a lower postoperative complication rate and corresponds well with the idea of "minimally invasive". However, all of the procedures must be performed in one tiny portal, so uniportal VATS anatomical segmentectomy not only needs the skill and patience of surgeons but the effective cooperation of assistants, nurses and anesthetists, and plenty of details must be paid special attention.

Case Description

Here we present a video of a patient undergoing S1 segmentectomy of right upper lobectomy (RUL) under uniportal VATS. The chief complaints of the patients was that two pure GGOs in the bilateral upper lobe were found by physical examination for 26 months and he had no symptoms. We performed S1 segmentectomy of RUL under uniportal first time and performed trisegmentectomy of left upper lobectomy (LUL) 3 months later. With routinely follow-up, no evidence of relapse and metastasis disease was found.

Conclusions

We think anatomical segmentectomy under uniportal VATS can be a feasible and safe procedure that reduces trauma and has equivalent oncology outcomes to lobectomy in early-stage lung cancer but need a more experienced medical center to perform.

Keywords

Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (uniportal VATS); segmentectomy; non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); case report.

[Correlation Analysis of the Lung Volume Reduction and the Lung Function Loss after the Thoracoscopic Lobectomy]

BACKGROUND

To investigate the correlation between the reduction of lung volume and the degree of lung function damage after lobectomy.

METHODS

A total of 131 patients (72 males and 59 females) who underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy in the First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University from January 2019 to July 2020 (including thoracoscopic resection of left upper lobe, left lower lobe, right upper lobe, right middle lobe and right lower lobe). In order to compare the difference between postoperative pulmonary function and preoperative pulmonary function, the pulmonary function measurements were recorded at 7 days before operation, and 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after operation. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was used as the main evaluation parameter of pulmonary function. The original lung volume and the remaining lung volume at each stage were calculated by Mimics Research 19.0 software. The correlation between lung volume and lung function was analyzed.

RESULTS

FEV1 in postoperative patients was lower than that before operation, and the degree of decline was positively correlated with the resection volume of lung lobes (the maximum value was shown in the left lower lobe group). Significantly, there was no significant difference in the degree of pulmonary function reduction between 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after operation.

CONCLUSIONS

The decrease of lung tissue volume after lobectomy is the main reason for the decrease of lung function, especially in the left lower lobe. And 3 months after lobectomy can be selected as the evaluation node of residual lung function.

Lobectomy is superior to segmentectomy for peripheral high grade non-small cell lung cancer ≤2 cm

Background

Current practice guidelines recommend the following criteria for segmentectomy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): size ≤2 cm, margins ≥2 cm and no lymph node involvement. We sought to further stratify the selection criteria for segmentectomy for small peripheral high-grade tumors.

Methods

This retrospective database study was conducted using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. We queried for patients with high-grade (poorly differentiated/undifferentiated) pathological (p)T1a/b peripheral NSCLC (tumor size ≤2 cm), who underwent either lobectomy or segmentectomy between 2004 and 2015. Patients with node-positive disease or those who received any form of induction or adjuvant treatments were excluded.

Results

A total of 4,332 patients met the inclusion criteria, with 3,977 patients (91.8%) treated with lobectomy and 355 patients (8.2%) who underwent segmentectomy. In a propensity matched pair analysis of 640 patients, lobectomy (n=320) showed significantly improved 5-year survival of 45.9% vs. 33.8% for segmentectomy (n=320), P<0.01. In a multivariate Cox regression analysis, lobectomy was associated with significantly improved survival (HR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.714–0.989, P=0.036). Interestingly, married status, adenocarcinoma histology, number of lymph nodes sampled were associated with better survival (P<0.05), while advanced age and male gender had worse survival outcomes (P<0.05).

Conclusions

For small peripheral NSCLC ≤2 cm and high grades of tumor differentiation, lobectomy is associated with better long-term survival outcomes as compared to segmentectomy. Additional data is needed to further stratify various NSCLC histologies with their respective grades to allow for better selection for segmentectomy.

[Advances in the Study of the Effects of Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Segmentectomy on Pulmonary Function]

2018年美国国立综合癌症网络关于非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC）指南指出，对于早期NSCLC，解剖性肺叶切除为首选方案。随着电视胸腔镜技术的发展，以胸腔镜为代表的胸外科微创手术在临床得到了广泛应用。胸腔镜肺段切除术已经成为早期NSCLC的治疗方案之一。临床研究发现相较于肺叶切除，亚肺叶切除在早期NSCLC治疗中也可取得相似的结果并保留更多的肺功能，但肺段切除术后患者肺功能的改变尚存争议。本文将重点对胸腔镜肺段切除术后患者肺功能改变的研究进展做一综述。