All things are created twice: the importance of planning and reproduction in sublobar lung resection

Pulmonary lobectomy is an operation in which the anatomical resection is obviously defined by the common anatomy of pulmonary lobulation and hilar structures in most cases. Lobectomy has been the standard operation for lung cancer since the publication of the prospective, randomized, clinical trial by the Lung Cancer Study Group comparing lobectomy and sublobar pulmonary resections (including wedge resection and segmentectomy) in 1995 (1). However, accumulating data show no significant differences between lobectomy and sublobar lung resection in selected patient populations, such as those with nodules of ground glass opacity (2,3). Furthermore, the number of older and compromised patients, and patients with multicentric lesions is increasing, and so the clinical need for sublobar lung resection is increasing.