Uniportal surgical biopsy, without orotraqueal intubation, without thoracic drainage in intersticial pulmonary disease: initial results

OBJECTIVE: interstitial lung disease comprises a group of lung diseases with wide pathophysiological varieties. This paper aims to report the video thoracoscopic surgical biopsy in patients with interstitial lung disease through a single minimal chest incision, without orotracheal intubation, without chest drainage, and without the use of neuromuscular blockers. METHODS: this study is a series of 14 cases evaluated retrospectively, descriptively, where patients underwent a pulmonary surgical biopsy from January 2019 to January 2020. The patients included in the study had diffuse interstitial lung disease without a defined etiological diagnosis. RESULTS: none of the patients had transoperative complications, there was no need for chest drainage in the postoperative period, and the patients pain, assessed using the verbal scale, had a mode of 2 (minimum value of 1 and maximum of 4) in the post immediate surgery and 1 (minimum value of 1 and maximum of 3) at the time of hospital discharge. The length of hospital stay was up to 24 hours, with 12 patients being discharged on the same day of hospitalization. CONCLUSION: therefore, it is concluded in this series of cases that the performance of uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery procedures to perform lung biopsies, without orotracheal intubation, without chest drainage, and without the use of neuromuscular blockers, bring benefits to the patient without compromising his safety. Further larger studies are necessary to confirm the safety and efficiency of this method.