ABSTRACT

Starting to be applied in the beginning of 1990s, video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) was firstly used for pleural biopsy, biopsy of lung parenchyma, treatment of empyema, and pneumothorax and is now taking a role in the surgical treatment of lung cancer. As VATS anatomic resections were applied to peripheral small tumors at the very beginning, it is now used for more complex tumors. Implication of robotic surgery to thoracic surgical practice brought a new perspective. Minimally invasive approach is preferred in lung cancer surgery because of its advantages such as less postoperative pain and early mobilization. In this review, we aimed to present the recent developments in this widely used technique.