Thoracoscopic surgery approach to mediastinal mature teratomas: a single-center experience

BACKGROUND: Mediastinal mature teratomas are rare tumors with diverse surgical approaches. The aim of this study is to review our experience of thoracoscopic surgery management in patients with teratomas. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 28 consecutive patients with mediastinal mature teratomas who underwent thoracoscopic surgery at Viet Duc University Hospital from January 2008 to August2018. Patients were divided into 2 groups with 2 types of thoracoscopic surgery, closed thoracoscopic surgery (CTS) group and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) group. The selection of sugical approach was based on sizes, locations and characteristics of tumors. Post-operative outcomes were assessed and compared between these 2 groups. RESULTS: There were 14 female and 14 male patients with a median age of 41.2 ± 13.8 years. A total of 22 teratomas were located on the right side of the chest cavity and 6 on the left side. We performed CTS in 21 patients (75%) and VATS in 7 patients (25%) for tumor resection. There were 3 cases (10.7%) required conversion to minithoracotomy (5 cm in incision length). Skin appendages accounted for the highest rate (96.4%) in pathology. There was no record of mortality or tumor recurrence detected by computerized tomography. CONCLUSION: A thoracoscopic surgery for a mediastinal mature teratoma was a feasible choice. Challenging factors such as large tumors, intraoperative bleeding and strong tumor cell adhesion were considered handling by conversion to mini-thoracotomy that could ensure safety procedures and complete removal of tumors. Extraction of tumor contents might be performed for patients with large mature cystic teratomas to facilitate thoracoscopic surgery.