[Trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy for bilateral lung lesions].

The trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy had been used widely in the early days of cardiac surgery, but since the 1960's the median sternotomy has played a great part in open heart surgery. Recently, the simultaneous bilateral thoracotomy has been used for bilateral lung lesions such as bilateral giant bullae, bilateral pneumothoraces and bilateral metastatic lung tumors. Since 1965 we have performed 6 operations using trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy for several bilateral lung lesions. The diseases which led to the use of the trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy technique were 2 cases of bilateral simultaneous pneumothoraces and 4 cases of bilateral lung metastatic tumors. The ages of the patients ranged from 17 to 45 years old. The operative blood loss was between 100 and 810 gm. No case showed postoperative respiratory distress or severe thoracic pain. It would like to be pointed out that the trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy is the most ideal approach for the multiple bilateral lung metastatic lesions which often invade the chest wall or diaphragm.