33rd Annual Scientific Meeting proceedings

Introduction
Open thoracotomy (OT), total thoracoscopy (TT), and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) have been described for lung lobectomy. We report the outcome using a thoracoscopic-assisted mini-thoracotomy (TAMT) for complete lung lobectomy in primary lung tumors in dogs.

Materials and methods
Dogs undergoing surgery for resection of a primary lung tumor using a TAMT approach (with a muscle-sparing mini-thoracotomy from the beginning of the surgery) were included. Patient signalment, clinical signs, blood analysis, thoracic CT scan findings and outcome measures (surgical, thoracic drain and total hospitalization times, complications, histology, follow-up) were recorded.

Results
Sixteen dogs with a solitary pulmonary mass (located in the caudal lung lobes in 11/16 patients). Median tumor size was 4.1cm. Median surgery time was 80minutes. Histologic diagnosis was consistent with papillary adenocarcinoma (15/16 patients) and clean margins were obtained for all cases. Median thoracic drain and hospitalization times were 16h and 1 day, respectively. No complications were recorded. All dogs survived to discharge.

Discussion / conclusions
Our surgical time was shorter than previous reported for VATS (120-minutes) and TT (108.8-minutes). Median hospitalization time was 1 day, versus 2.5 and 2 days for OT and VATS, respectively. These differences may be attributable to the mini-thoracotomy muscle-sparing technique, or the use of an intercostal circular atraumatic retractor. TAMT for complete lobectomy is a safe, feasible and fast approach, which provides both benefits of minimally invasive surgery: increased surgical exposure and decreased surgical time.