Thoracoscopy is a medical procedure involving internal examination, biopsy and/or resection/

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic condition ...

of disease or masses within the

pleural cavity The pleural cavity, pleural space, or interpleural space is the potential space between the pleurae of the pleural sac that surrounds each lung. A small amount of serous pleural fluid is maintained in the pleural cavity to enable lubrication b ...

, usually with video assistance. Thoracoscopy may be performed either under general anaesthesia or under sedation with local anaesthetic.

History

Thoracoscopy was first performed by Sir Francis Cruise of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin in conjunction with Dr Samuel Gordon in 1865. It was further developed by Hans Christian Jacobaeus, a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

internist in 1910 for the treatment of tuberculous intra-thoracic adhesions. He used a cystoscope to examine the thoracic cavity, developing his technique over the next twenty years. Today, thoracoscopy is performed using specialized thoracoscopes. These instruments include a

light source Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 terah ...

and a

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

for viewing and may have ports through which other instruments may be inserted for the purpose of tissue removal and manipulation.

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is a

surgical Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

operation involving thoracoscopy, usually performed by a

thoracic surgeon Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs (lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal struc ...

using general or local/regional anaesthesia with additional sedation as necessary. It has historically also been referred to as ''pleuroscopy''. A wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures may be performed with this technique which has become very popular and increasingly so since the early 1990s. Prior to this, limited diagnostic procedures were done using variations on the cystoscope since 1910. Advances in direct optical visualization were quickly surpassed when video cameras were attached to the endoscopes. The advent of endoscopic stapling was also a major advance so that complicated procedures such as pulmonary lobectomy could be performed safely. VATS can be useful for the diagnosis of undefined interstitial lung diseases.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Endoscopy Respiratory system procedures Thoracic surgical procedures Pulmonary thoracic surgery

History

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

See also

References

External links