Clinical experience of surgical therapy in 207 patients with thoracic hydatidosis over a 12-year-period

Therapeutic evaluation of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery versus open thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease

Background

Hydatid disease is a severe and widespread human cestode infection, and in children, the lung is the most commonly infected organ. In current practice, the standard surgical procedure for the removal of pulmonary hydatid cysts is thoracotomy; therefore, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to treat pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease. To our knowledge, this is the first and large sample comparative study of VATS and thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease.

Methods

In this study, we retrospectively reviewed 44 (61.1 %) pediatric patients who underwent VATS, and 28 (38.9 %) pediatric patients who underwent conventional thoracotomy from January 2005 to June 2012. Perioperative data, including basic characteristics of patients, the length of hospital stay, intraoperative blood loss, thoracic intubation indwelling time, and complications were compared between VATS and thoracotomy in 72 children with pulmonary hydatid disease.

Results

VATS was found to be a safe technique for the treatment of pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease, with zero intraoperative deaths. In the VATS and thoracotomy groups, the hospital stay durations were 10.50 ± 1.20 days and 17.30 ± 2.75 days, respectively, and occurrence rates of complications were 9.1 % (4/44) and 17.9 % (5/28), respectively. The hospital stays were shorter and the hospitalization costs was reduced for the patients who underwent VATS compared with conventional thoracotomy (P = 0.001). Although no statistically significant difference in the recurrence rates (P = 0.958) and complication incidence (P = 0.273) between the two surgical groups was observed, less intraoperative bleeding, shorter thoracic intubation indwelling time and reduced postoperative pain were observed in the patients who underwent VATS (P = 0.001).

Conclusion

Our study demonstrates the feasibility and safety of VATS for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease treatment, providing a practice-changing concept for the treatment of this disease in the community. VATS can be a promising therapeutic tool, by overcoming many of the drawbacks of thoracotomy, and can be used as an alternative to thoracotomy for selected pediatric patients.

Evaluation of the effect of pulmonary hydatid cyst location on the surgical technique approaches

Purpose:

A hydatid cyst is the most common lung parasitic disease and is endemic in Iran. A hydatid cyst is more common in the right lung and lower lobes.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to assess surgical treatment of pulmonary hydatid cysts and whether the location of cyst affects surgical technique approaches.

Materials and Methods:

This study was performed on 87 patients with a pulmonary hydatid cyst who were referred to Qaem Hospital from 2010 to 2012. Selection of surgical technique was according to size, location, and the number of cysts. Patients were divided into two groups: (1) surgery with preserving lung parenchyma and (2) lobectomy. Afterward, the relationship between the location of cyst and surgical technique approaches was evaluated. Data was analyzed by Chi-square and Fisher exact tests.

Results:

In this study, no significant relation was found between the size (P = 0.682) and number (P = 0.344) of cysts and lobectomy necessity. But, there was a significant relation between the occurrence of cyst in middle lobe and lobectomy necessity (P = 0.016).

Conclusions:

According to the results, type of surgical technique does not depend on the size and number of cysts, but it may be related to the location of the cyst and the ratio of lung destruction.