Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, often abbreviated VATS, is a minimally invasive approach to chest surgery performed with a small video camera mounted on a fiberoptic thoracoscope. The surgeon views the inside of the chest cavity on a television screen rather than through a large open incision, and works through several small ports cut into the chest wall using elongated instruments. Because the thoracic cage is naturally rigid, VATS does not need the carbon dioxide gas that abdominal laparoscopy uses to create working space, but the lung on the operated side is deliberately deflated so the surgeon can see and maneuver, usually achieved with a double lumen breathing tube that allows one lung to keep ventilating while the other collapses. The technique lets surgeons perform many procedures that once required a large open incision through a handful of small ports instead.