Scientific prove of better quality of life and postoperative pain by minimal invasive thoracic surgery

We read with great interest the results of the trial of Bendixen et al. (1). The randomised controlled study of the University Hospital of Odense, Denmark demonstrated that video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy is superior to anterolateral thoracotomy and lobectomy for early stage lung cancer in terms of postoperative pain and quality of life. The authors point out that video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS)-lobectomy has a small but significant advantage in documented postoperative pain and a significantly better self-reported quality of life.