Objective To investigate the feasibility and safety of thoracoscopic subsegmental pulmonary resection in clinical practice by comparing thoracoscopic pulmonary segment resection.

Methods The clinical data of 90 single pulmonary nodule patients treated with thoracoscopic anatomic sublobectomy were retrospectively analyzed.According to the surgical methods, the patients were divided into the thoracoscopic subsegmental pulmonary resection group(subsegment group, 34 cases) and thoracoscopic lower pulmonary segment resection group(pulmonary segment group, 56 cases).The perioperative indicators and early efficacy between two groups were compared.

Results The number of patients with subsegments resection, intraoperative blood loss and distance of resection margin in subsegment group were significantly less than those in pulmonary segment group(P < 0.01), and the differences of the operative time, postoperative chest drainage, postoperative catheter time and postoperative hospital stay between two groups were not statistically significant(P>0.05).The differences of the postoperative complications, pathological diagnosis and TNM staging between two groups were not statistically significant(P>0.05), and the number of stage Ⅰ lymph node resection in subsegment group were significantly less than that in pulmonary segment group(P < 0.01).The tumor recurrence and metastasis in two groups during postoperative following up were not found.

ConclusionsThe thoracoscopic subsegmental pulmonary resection can remove less lung tissue on the premise of ensuring the cutting edge, which can be used in the treatment of early non-small-cell lung cancer.