Yim A P
Department of Surgery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Aust N Z J Med. 1997 Apr;27(2):156-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1997.tb00931.x.
Within a short period of time, video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has revolutionised the practice of thoracic surgery. Most of the existing literature, however, is concentrated on the technical aspects.
We examined the impact of VATS on our practice and its implications.
We reviewed our thoracic case load two years before and two years after the introduction of VATS in our hospital.
We have witnessed a rapid and progressive increase in our thoracic case load since the introduction of VATS. With increased experience, proportionally more cases were performed using VATS compared to conventional surgical access. The increased case load covered a wide range of thoracic diseases with the majority for spontaneous pneumothorax and pleural diseases.
The higher case load is due to increased referrals which at least partly reflect earlier acceptance by both the patients and their physicians for surgical intervention. The changing indications for surgery and the high cost associated with VATS, however, could place extra demand on the healthcare, especially for some countries in Asia. Cost containment is therefore a high priority here. More research is greatly needed in this area.
在短时间内，电视辅助胸腔镜手术（VATS）彻底改变了胸外科的手术方式。然而，现有大多数文献都集中在技术方面。
我们研究了VATS对我们手术操作的影响及其意义。
我们回顾了我院引入VATS之前两年和之后两年的胸外科病例数量。
自引入VATS以来，我们目睹了胸外科病例数量迅速且持续增加。随着经验的增加，与传统手术入路相比，使用VATS进行的手术病例比例相应增加。增加的病例涵盖了广泛的胸科疾病，其中大多数是自发性气胸和胸膜疾病。
病例数量增加是由于转诊增加，这至少部分反映了患者及其医生对手术干预的更早接受。然而，手术适应症的变化以及VATS相关的高成本可能会给医疗保健带来额外需求，尤其是对亚洲的一些国家而言。因此，成本控制是这里的当务之急。这一领域非常需要更多的研究。
