BACKGROUND

We hypothesized that video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lung metastasectomy under non-intubated anesthesia may have a lesser immunological and inflammatory impact than the same procedure under general anesthesia.

METHODS

Between December 2005 and October 2015, 55 patients with pulmonary oligometastases (at the first episode) successfully underwent VATS metastasectomy under non-intubated anesthesia. Lymphocytes subpopulation and interleukins 6 and 10 were measured at different intervals and matched with a control group composed of 13 patients with similar clinical features who refused non-intubated surgery.

RESULTS

The non-intubated group demonstrated a lesser reduction of natural killer lymphocytes at 7 days from the procedure ( = 0.04) compared to control. Furthermore, the group revealed a lesser spillage of interleukin 6 after 1 ( = 0.03), 7 ( = 0.04), and 14 ( = 0.05) days. There was no mortality in any groups. Major morbidity rate was significantly higher in the general anesthesia group 3 (5%) vs. 3 (23%) ( = 0.04). The median hospital stay was 3.0 vs. 3.7 ( = 0.033) days, the estimated costs with the non-intubated procedure was significantly lower, even excluding the hospital stay.

CONCLUSIONS

VATS lung metastasectomy in non-intubated anesthesia had significantly lesser impact on both immunological and inflammatory response compared to traditional procedure in intubated general anesthesia.