An Overview of Open-chest Surgery in the Era of Fast-track Management

In more than a century, Approaches to performing thoracic surgical procedures have been changed significantly. A milestone of those changes has been the advent of video-assisted techniques which quickly progressed from minor diagnostic procedures to the performance of almost any major thoracic surgery. by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Despite this, there are still indications for open chest surgeries, as well as the fact that thoracotomy techniques have grown to be significantly less invasive than the full thoracotomy of the past. This chapter examines the evolution of open chest techniques and describes in detail the current method of performing low invasiveness open chest surgery, which leads in excellent results with a mild postoperative course. Unresolved concerns in the comparison of video-assisted and open surgical procedures, notably in lung cancer surgery, are also discussed.