THE CLINICAL PRACTICE OF VIDEO-ASSISTED THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY (A REPORT OF 33 CASES)

33 operations were successfully performed with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS) by the authors from June l996 to Aug. 1997, which included l4 cases of spontaneous pneumothorax, 8 cases of lung tumor (5 beDing and 3 malignant ), 4 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, 3 cases of pleuraleffusion, 1 case of cancer of esophagus, l case of hyperhidrosis, 1 case of bronchiectasis and l diagnosis ofpyothorax. The authors also performed pulmonary alveolus resctions in l4, belb resecti0ns in 3, lungwedged resections in 9, removal of pleural effusion and fixation of pleura in 3, resection of cancer of esophagus in 1, sympathet1c nerve resectlon of sternums 2~4 in 1, living inspectlon of pyoth0rax in l, living inspection of pulmonary tuberculosis in l. All the above operations were successfully done with n0 seriouscomplications. The preliminary discussion about the main points ln the procedure of performance were discussed in this paper