Barcelona 2022

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The positive downside of COVID pandemic on advances in thoracic surgery in 2021

Year in review
Aims: to present the evolution of minimally invasive surgery for complex and extended lung resections during COVID pandemic; The advances in anaesthesiologic techniques has brought to perform non-intubated video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery under combination of erector spinae plane block and thoracic paravertebral block. Comparative efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and surgery in the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a hot topic in thoracic oncology. Immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic NSCLC are being rapidly tested in clinical trials for the treatment of early-stage NSCLC in combination with surgery. The care of patients with surgically resectable epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated lung adenocarcinomas shows the deep collaboration between medical and surgical thoracic oncology in the neoadjuvant setting. In lung trasnplantation the available pool of donor lungs could be expanded , using ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP). Shorter length of stay following minimally invasive thymectomy for stage I through III thymoma, compared with open thymectomy, without increased rates of margin positivity, perioperative morbidity, or decreases in overall survival has been demonstrated.

The positive downside of COVID pandemic on advances in thoracic surgery in 2021 R. Petersen (Copenhagen, Denmark)