ABSTRACT

Thoracoscopy have been gained acceptance in several thoracic surgery centers as a therapeutic and diagnostic procedure in different thoracic pathologies. Our hospital is not a exception. The present study is a preliminary report from the prospective analysis performed at the Military Central Hospital, Mexico City. In the term of a year, we included all the cases underwent to the minimally Invasive thoracic surgery. From a total of 38 procedures, 19 cases were performed by indication of pleural pathology, 14 by pulmonary diseases and 5 by mediastinal problems. 7 procedures of the 19 cases, were made by sub acute and chronic pleural collections, 4 by pleural effusions, 3 due to empyemas, 3 pleural biopsies, one case due to benign posterior wall lipomas and a case by visualization of diaphragmatic suture repair In trauma case. From the 19 procedures, 15 were performed just from pleural pathology exclusively, while 4 cases were done in association with pulmonary and mediastinal pathology. From the all pleural collection cases (10 procedures), we performed 8 decortications and 2 pleurodesis successfully. As a result of the thoracoscopy application, 15 procedures were therapeutic and 4 diagnostic, from these, 5 cases were a combination of therapeutic and diagnostic. The pleural diseases were the most frequent indication procedure in our study, showed that thoracoscopy is the most helpful procedure in these problems, also reported a high curative rate in the most of the patients, best postoperative pain tolerance related procedure, evident advantage in terms of clinical value, (aster procedure and quickly postoperative recovery time, finally feasible and easy reproduction in our hospital with excellent results.

KEYWORDS

empyema, pleural effussion, hemothorax, hidrothorax, therapeutic application, thoracoscopy.

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