Uniportal thoracoscopic lobectomy.

Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) has without doubt been the most significant advance in thoracic surgery over the past half century. No other single innovation has so totally revolutionized the way thoracic surgeons perform their craft, or so greatly improved the surgical experience for patients undergoing thoracic operations worldwide. Throughout the world, patients requiring major lung resection surgery are increasingly demanding that they receive VATS. The trend for ever increasing proportions of lung resections being performed with a VATS approach is inexorable. This is true around the globe, from Asia to Europe to North America. It is becoming ever more difficult for thoracic surgeons to justify not using a VATS in the face of overwhelming evidence for the benefits of this approach-not only in terms of reducing patient morbidity, but also in improving surgical outcomes.