Robot-Assisted Right Middle Lobectomy

Robot-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy is a feasible procedure, based on the authors’ previous experience. Their hospital has carried out robot-assisted thoracic surgery since May 2015, and accomplished over 400 cases of thoracic surgery through June 2017. This includes, but is not limited to, benign and malignant lung tumors, benign and malignant esophageal disease, mediastinal masses, and thymoma. This video demostrates a successful robot-assisted right middle lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer.

The patient was a 73-year-old woman who was admitted for a nodule in the right lung, which was found during a health checkup two years ago. She had no symptoms such as fever, chest pain, shortness of breath, or hoarseness. Recent CT scanning showed the nodule had enlarged to 1.8 cm, with lobulated edges and pleural indentation. Moreover, it had an abnormally high metabolic performance on PET/CT. The surgery time was about 50 minutes. The patient was discharged on postoperative day four without any perioperative complications. The pathological stage was T1bN0M0 (invasive adenocarcinoma, stage IA2).