Lung Treatment Outcomes

Better Surgical Outcomes
Traditional surgery for lung cancer requires a very long incision and a long recovery, but video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) offers a minimally invasive alternative with many benefits for the patient. Todd Demmy, MD, Chair of Thoracic Surgery, is one of the pioneers of this type of surgery. Nationally, only 20-30% of lung surgeries are done with the VATS approach, but RPCI has an 80-90% rate—and is a world leader in the number performed for removal of an entire lung.

Thoracoscopic Lobectomy/VATS
Compared to traditional open surgery, thoracoscopic lobectomy yields fewer complications by reducing pain and allows patients to be more independent after discharge. Accordingly, those
patients who need additional treatments like chemotherapy can tolerate them better.

High Volume and Highest Reliability to Provide Minimally Invasive Lung Surgery

Only Four New York State Centers with > 100

Lobectomies in 2009

 

RPCI to New York State Hospitals (2009 Inpatient Data) Greater Than 20 Lobectomies

 

RPCI surgeons use minimally invasive techniques preferentially (over 80%, compared with a national average of 20%), accounting for one of the shorter average hospital stays in New York State.

Hospital Stays/Recovery Times

The shorter time in postoperative hospital stay and recovery time until normal activities is probably from reduced pain

Discharge Summary