Lung: Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery

[Ivan]

Discuss video-assisted lung surgery here.

[Josh]

During my staging, a VATS was performed. The doctor had a dye injected into the tumor so that he would be able to find it. I didn't think about it at the time, but as I was reading through all my old surgical reports, I remembered this happening.

My concern is could this have caused the needle to "drag" out tumor cells and perhaps seed new tumors?

[Olga]

Josh, he night have injected the die into the area close to the tumor to leave a mark, not into the tumor itself?
If he did inject the die into to tumor directly, the risk of seeding would be similar to that of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB).
The dissemination of the tumor cells - seeding - along the needle track is often discussed in cases when Percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is used to sample the lung or other mets to verify their origin.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23235767
The authors conclude:
"Although tumor seeding after FNAB is a rare but possible complication, we suggest that careful examination for implantation (with periodical CT scans) should be performed for at least three years after FNAB."

[Josh]

The medical record said that the dye was injected in to the tumor. This was done prior to the VATS while I was still awake, because the surgeon was afraid he wouldn't be able to find the tumor during surgery so he had them "mark" it with dye using a CT scan and a needle.