Analyzing intraoperative conversion of thoracoscopic lobectomy: acceptable outcome or failure?

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy, which first emerged as a feasible technique in the 1990s, has been shown to be safe and effective for the treatment of early-stage lung cancer (1). Benefits over traditional thoracotomy include a decreased length of stay, decreased overall morbidity, decreased pulmonary complications, decreased atrial arrhythmias, decreased postoperative pain, and improved short-term quality of life and pulmonary function (2,3).