45 Laparoscopic management of epiphrenic diverticula FERNANDO MIER AND JOHN G. HUNTER Esophageal epiphrenic diverticula are pulsion diverticula located in the distal 10 cm of the esophagus. They represent the…
25 Management of postoperative chylothorax Maxim Itkin and John C. Kucharczuk INTRODUCTION Traumatic chylothorax is a result of the direct or indirect trauma to the thoracic duct (TD) or its…
26 Outpatient thoracic surgery Laureano Molins, Juan J. Fibla and Jorge HernÁNdez INTRODUCTION The term “ambulatory surgery” was coined by J. E. Davis in 1986. Outpatient surgery, also called “major…
21 Lung volume reduction surgery Claudio Caviezel and Walter Weder HISTORY Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a major and wellknown health problem. It was first described as large air spaces…
41 Laparoscopic cardiomyotomy for achalasia SHERAZ MARKAR AND GIOVANNI ZANINOTTO INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL NOTES Esophageal achalasia, albeit a rare disease with an incidence ranging from 0.4 to 1.5 per 100…
23 Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) sympathectomy Young K. Hong and M. Blair Marshall HISTORY Dorsal sympathectomies have been performed since the beginning of the twentieth century, with the earliest reported…
11 Thymectomy Larry R. Kaiser HISTORY Over the past few decades, complete removal of the thymus gland has been shown to improve the clinical course of patients with myasthenia gravis…
9 Anterior mediastinal lesions Antonio D’andrilli, Erino Angelo Rendina and Federico Venuta The mediastinum is a virtual three-dimensional space located between the lungs, above the diaphragm, posteriorly to the sternum,…
30 Intraoperative Neuromonitoring During Thoracic Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery Ronald Emerson Abstract Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) are employed for spinal cord monitoring during thoracic…
27 Ventral Approaches to the Thoracic Spine for Trauma Robert Harper and Eric Klineberg Abstract A ventral approach to the thoracic spine for trauma may be clinically necessary for fractures…
