Taking to video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery like ducks to water

The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) is the only tertiary medical facility for chest and other respiratory diseases in the Philippines. From September 27 to 29, 1993, a year after the first reported video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy, the Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA) held the first VATS workshop in Asia at the LCP with Professors Robert McKenna and Rodney Landreneau as course directors. One of the trainees then was Professor Anthony Yim of Hong Kong who went on to become one of the world’s leading minimally invasive thoracic surgeons.