Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic segmentectomy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer

Since the first report of uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (U-VATS) in 2004, U-VATS techniques have undergone significant development, and its applications have expanded (1-3). Numerous studies have compared U-VATS with other approaches, such as multiportal VATS and robotic surgery, consistently demonstrating the superiority of U-VATS across various perioperative outcomes (4-6). This firmly establishes U-VATS as one of the most minimally invasive surgical approaches available today. Moreover, the benefits of segmentectomy for early-stage peripheral non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have recently been validated in large clinical trials (7,8). Therefore, performing segmentectomy with U-VATS for early-stage NSCLC can provide significant perioperative and oncological benefits for patients.

However, achieving high-quality segmentectomy with U-VATS requires both experience and innovation (9-12). In this special series, I have gathered U-VATS specialists from Europe and Asia to share their expertise, including tips, precautions, and specific techniques for U-VATS segmentectomy, supported by surgical videos. I aim to provide valuable insights for a wide range of readers, from novices to experienced surgeons in U-VATS segmentectomy.

I would like to thank the Journal of Visualized Surgery (JOVS) for providing a platform to discuss and share our experiences with U-VATS segmentectomy. I also extend my sincerest gratitude to all the authors for their valuable contributions to this special series.

Acknowledgments

I extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. Mahmoud Ismail and his secretary, Ms. Miko Schmitt, as well as Dr. Hitoshi Igai, for their invaluable support in coordinating the invitation of guest authors.

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Journal of Visualized Surgery for the series “Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Segmentectomy for Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jovs.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jovs-24-31/coif). The series “Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Segmentectomy for Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. T.W. served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Journal of Visualized Surgery from August 2024 to July 2026. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

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Takuya Watanabe