Between November 1992 and October 1996, 20 patients with
malignant pleural effusions were submitted to VATS under
general anesthesia. The overall positive histological diagnoses were obtained through VATS (20/20). The
malignant pleural mesothelioma in 8 cases and metastatic
cancers in 12 cases were histopathologically confirmed.
Talc pleurodesis was performed for all the cases, and 18 patients gained lasting
pleurodesis and the other 2 patients did not. The failure of
pleurodesis was due to that the lung could not reexpand to come into contact with the chest wall. Postoperative complications included transient
fever and slight
asthma in 2 cases, and the symptoms were relieved obviously after some simple
therapy to symptom. In conclusion, VATS has provided a high positive diagnosis of patients with
malignant pleural effusions not diagnosed by conventional methods and good results in
pleurodesis, but some operating skills must be emphasized.