"T" minus 3 Days...

In roughly three (3) days from now, my father will be going under the blade for his surgery.  Currently, he has two lesions on his upper left lung and the pathology report indicates the source to be the same cancer as what was discovered in his liver, well over a year ago. For his prescribed surgery, he will have the top 30% of his left lung removed during his Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS), which is sometimes also referred to as, VATS Lobectomy.

Surgeons at Cedars-Sinai hospital developed this type of procedure in 1992, in hopes of providing patients with a minimally invasive procedure that would ultimately offer a shorter hospital stay, less risk, and quicker recovery, without compromising the completeness of the cancer operation.



The Study
The surgeon who will be operating on my father, released a study showing that between 1992 and 2004, 1100 patients underwent either VATS lobectomy or pneumonectomy (removal of all pulmonary lobes from a lung in one operation) for bronchogenic carcinoma.

The study included - 595 women & 505 men, all with mean age of 71.2 years (range 39-85 years).

Method
The procedure is performed through an incision which is <2 inches, and without the need to spreading the ribs, along with 2 or 3 other small incisions. This is why, VATS is considered a minimally invasive procedure.

Findings
Of this study, some results are as follows:

• 84.7% of the patients had no postoperative complications
• 4.1% of patients required a blood transfusion
• Length of hospital stay was median of 3 days, mean of 4.78 days
• 16.4% of patiensts were discharged on post-operative day (POD) 1 or 2 (20%)
• Conversion to a regular thoracotomy occurred in only 2.5% of the patients
• <1% mortality rate

The data looks pretty good, and we are pretty hopeful that surgery will run smoothly.  My father will be cared for by one of the best surgeons in the field, who just happens to also be one of the pioneers of this procedure.

In preparation for surgery, my father's oncologist has taken him off chemotherapy for the week leading up to his surgery.  However, he is still taking Fucoidan and I'm glad to report that he is still feeling "normal".  We are all very blessed that he has remained in good spirits through this all.  See you in a few days...

-H.Vuong
Owner of "Fucoidan-HealthWatch"
hvuong@fucoidan-healthwatch.com


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