Abstract

Background

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy is currently the recommended approach for treating early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Different VATS approaches have been proposed so far, and the actual advantages of one technique over the other are still under debate. The aim of our study is to compare postoperative pain and analgesic drug consumption in uniportal VATS and triportal VATS for pulmonary lobectomy in early-stage lung cancer patients.

Methods

This study is a single-centre, prospective, two-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial. It is designed to compare uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (u-VATS) and three-ports video-assisted thoracic surgery (t-VATS) in terms of post-operative pain. The trial will enrol 120 patients with a 1:1 randomization. The primary outcome is the assessment of analgesic drug consumption. Secondary outcomes are postoperative pain measurement, evaluation of postoperative pulmonary function, and metabolic recovery after pulmonary lobectomy.

Discussion

The choice of which VATS approach to adopt for treating patients undergoing pulmonary resection mostly depends on the surgeon’s preferences; therefore, it is hard to prove whether one VATS technique is superior to the other. Moreover, postoperative analgesic protocols vary consistently among different centres. To date, only a few studies have evaluated the effects of the most popular VATS techniques. There is no evidence about difference between multi-ports VATS and u-VATS in terms of postoperative pain. We hope that the results of our trial will provide valuable information on the outcomes of these different surgical approaches.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT03240250; registered 08/07/2017; retrospectively registered; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03240250?term=NCT03240250&draw=2&rank=1

Details

Title
Uni-portal and three-portal video-assisted thoracic surgery pulmonary lobectomy for early stage lung cancer (UNIT trial): study protocol of a single-center randomized trial
Author
Mendogni, Paolo; Mazzucco, Alessandra; Palleschi, Alessandro; Rosso, Lorenzo; Righi, Ilaria; Carrinola, Rosaria; Damarco, Francesco; Privitera, Emilia; Fumagalli, Jacopo; Bonitta, Gianluca; Nosotti, Mario; Tosi, Davide
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Feb 12, 2021
Publisher
Research Square
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2531556076
Copyright
© 2021. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.