Identifying the intersegmental plane for segmentectomy using the open insufflation technique

Accurate identification of the intersegmental plane is the key to successful segmentectomy. This case series included 41 patients who underwent uniportal thoracoscopic segmentectomy using the open insufflation method to identify the intersegmental plane for pulmonary nodules. The median age of the patients was 58 (range 35-73) years, and 63.4% were female. Malignant pulmonary nodules accounted for 80.5% of cases and were staged as 0-IA2. Seventeen patients underwent a single subsegmentectomy or single segmentectomy, and 24 underwent combined subsegmentectomy or subsegmentectomy combined with segmentectomy. There was no conversion to multiportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, open surgery, or lobectomy. The median operative time was 84 (range 45-194) min, and the median blood loss was 50 (range 10-150) ml. The median chest tube duration and postoperative hospital stay were 2 (range 1 - 7) days. One (2.4%) developed an air leak for >5 days. No deaths occurred within 30 days after surgery.