Anesthesia Considerations 

Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) 

 

 

Anesthetic Considerations

 

• Indication for procedure & patient comorbidities

• Requirement for lung separation (not isolation) & associated considerations

• Management of hypoxemia in the context of VATS

• Postoperative pain management modality

• Risk of conversion to thoracotomy

 

 

Goals

 

• Provide excellent surgical conditions (e.g. optimal lung isolation)

• Hypoxemia during one lung ventilation with VATS focused management

• Avoid interventions to surgical lung (CPAP, two-lung ventilation)

• Good postoperative analgesia: epidural, PCA, paravertebral block