Preface to the 3rd European Perspective in Thoracic Surgery special issue
The European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) is currently the largest pure general thoracic organization worldwide. It welcomes approximately 1,500 members from all continents.
The ESTS mission statement summarizes the aims of the Society: our mission is to improve quality in all aspects of our specialty: from clinical and surgical management of patients to education, training and credentialing of thoracic surgeons in Europe and worldwide.
According to this mission, ESTS strives each year to deliver the highest standards of scientific education through its Annual Meeting.
The ESTS Annual Meeting represents the occasion for all ESTS members and for non-members guests to network with colleagues from all over the world, to keep abreast with the most up to date evidence from the literature with the final aim to improve patient care.
The 23rd ESTS Annual Meeting took place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 31st May to 3rd June 2015 and gathered more than 1,200 delegates.
This special issue of the Journal of Thoracic Diseaseis dedicated for the third year to the ESTS Conference and collects a selection of the most innovative and state of the art invited lectures presented during the 23rd ESTS Annual Congress.
It was a pleasure and privilege for the two of us to act as co-editors of this special issue, representing the third edition of the European Perspectives in Thoracic Surgery.
Our selection covers most of the aspects that makes up the mission of ESTS and we therefore came up with the following very innovative and sometime controversial contributions presented by world-renown experts in their field: the state of the art of diaphragmatic pacing and stimulation; robotic assisted thoracoscopic surgery for locally advanced lung cancer; non intubated, awake, thoracic surgery; the future of randomized clinical trials comparing VATS versus open surgery; surgery versus stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for the management of early stage lung cancer; the state of the art and future perspectives of the clinical research in China; when and how to perform eso-coloplasty; tips and tricks to perform vascular access for ECMO; and a trainee perspective of how to organize and manage a VATS training program.
We hope that the information collected in the present issue will be a comprehensive complement to the ESTS Annual Meeting and will help the practicing thoracic surgeons in their daily activity or stimulate new research in the field.
We are deeply indebted to all the authors, who contributed to the realization of the present volume.
This issue is once again dedicated to all women and men working in the field of thoracic surgery, surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists and allied health professionals who, with their daily commitment and devotion help promote and advance our specialty and can assure our patients a high quality of care, a better quality of life and an improved long-term survival.
