Changes in Pleural Cavity Volume and Surgical Exposure Through Suture Retraction of the Diaphragm During VATS Procedures

A visually good surgical field is essential in performing safe and optimal dissection of anatomical structures during Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS). A number of patients referred to VATS-surgery appear with an elevated diaphragm, reducing visibility and complicating safe surgical techniques, thus entailing conversion from VATS into an open Thoracotomy. Some surgeons handle the decreased visibility due to an elevated diaphragm by increasing the amount of ports during VATS. Others have benefited from attaching a traction suture on the diaphragmatic posterior tendinous part, thus flatting the diaphragmatic dome when the suture is tightly retracted through the camera-port. It turns out that most thoracic surgery clinics are not familiar with this technique. There are also no articles regarding this topic in medical literature. We want to investigate if the diaphragmatic traction-suture affects the pleural cavity volume, as well as improves visual overview of a surgical field during minimally invasive thoracic surgery.