Thoracoscopic right middle lobe subsegmentectomy: A single-center, retrospective review

OBJECTIVE: The right middle lobe subsegmentectomy (including multisubsegmentectomy and subsubsegmentectomy) has never been reported. This study aimed to describe a thoracoscopic right middle lobe subsegmentectomy. METHODS: This retrospective study included 94 patients who underwent thoracoscopic right middle lobe subsegmentectomy between August 2018 and February 2021. All procedures were performed with the help of the preoperative 3-dimensional computed tomography bronchography and angiography. RESULTS: Ninety-four patients underwent thoracoscopic right middle lobe subsegmentectomy. The median operative time was 56 minutes (range, 35-86 minutes) and median blood loss was 86 mL (range, 50-150 mL). The median duration of chest tube retention was 2.5 days (range, 1-4 days). There were neither cases of postoperative right middle lobe torsion nor instances of perioperative death. The median size of the tumor in the resected segment was 1.3 cm (range, 1.1-1.8 cm). The median margin was 3.3 cm (range, 2.9-4.3). There were 88 cases of lung cancer and 6 cases of benign lesions. The median number of N1 lymph nodes sampled was 3 (range, 2-4). No lymph node involvement was observed postoperatively. No recurrence or mortality was observed during the median follow-up period of 26 months (range, 6-36 months). CONCLUSIONS: Thoracoscopic right middle lobe subsegmentectomy is feasible and safe. It may be valuable to preserve the lung parenchyma in patients with noninvasive lung cancer, multiple lung cancer, and benign diseases. Long-term lung function, survival, and cancer-free data are being collected.