A Randomized Controlled Trial Under Thoracoscopic Pulmonary Wedge Resection Without Chest Drainage Tube

Objective:Minimally invasive surgery has made remarkable progress in recent years,but chest tubes are still placed as a conventional process after thoracoscope pulmonary wedge resection.In order to further reduce postoperative pain and accelerate rehabilitation,the purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and advantage in the patients who undergo the thoracoscope pulmonary wedge resection without chest tube placement.Methods:It is a single-center randomized controlled trial.Eligible patients who underwent VATS pulmonary wedge resection was age from 18 to 75 years old,and they were randomly divided into two groups:the no chest tube group(NCT)compared with the chest tube placement group(CTP).The clinical data were compiled and analyzed with the two groups.Results:From June 201 8 to October 2019,150 patients were consecutively recruited into our RCT and 134 patients of them were eligible for analysis.The absence of perioperative mortality in both of NTP group and CTP group.Analysis of data demonstrates that the shorter length of stay(LOS),the less postoperative pain and the lower hospitalization costs in the NCT group compared with the CTP group(p<0.05).There were no obvious differences in terms of postoperative complications,operative time,blood loss between the two groups(p>0.05).Conclusions:This randomized controlled trial confirmed that chest tube removal after VATS pulmonary wedge resection to treat with lung tumors is feasible and safe for patients carefully selected,and it has superiority on reducing postoperative pain,decreasing the length of stay,and promoting Enhanced Recovery After Surgery(ERAS).Trial registry number:Clinical Trials.gov NCT04012554.