BOSTON – When it comes to intraoperative complications during thoracoscopic lobectomy, the mantra for success is to always have a preoperative plan, but be flexible enough to improvise should anything out of the norm arise.
“Many surgeons, when they ask [me] about this specific topic, ask what specific tricks [I] have, but I don’t like to use the word ‘trick’ [because] it’s not something we can do that other people can’t,” explained Dr. Thomas A. D’Amico, chief of general thoracic surgery at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
“It’s really just about strategy – how you start an operation, what the conduct of it should be, and when you see things that are less common or more difficult cases, how you think about those and manage those.”
In an interview at the Focus on Thoracic Surgery: Technical Challenges and Complications meeting held by the American Association for Thoracic Surgeons, Dr. D’Amico talked about why surgeons around the world are apprehensive about thoracoscopic lobectomy and why it’s important to begin training residents on how to properly perform the procedure as soon as possible, as it helps mitigate uncertainty while giving them valuable experience to solve any issues that may come up during an operation.
Dr. D’Amico disclosed that he is a consultant for Scanlan, but that it is not relevant to this discussion.