An incision of 10-20 cm, called thoracotomy, is made on the side of chest wall in classical surgical procedures in order to access the lungs and other pectoral organs. The cause of post-operative pain is the retractors inserted between two ribs. In some cases, the surgeon needs to make an incision called sternotomy on the front side of the chest.

There are video-assisted minimal invasive methods where smaller incisions are made for many patients. With this technique called video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), the surgeons can perform a thoracic operation without sternotomy or thoracotomy. Although this method has several restrictions and may not be appropriate for very complicated patients, we routinely and successfully perform surgeries for lung cancer and thymectomy using VATS method. In this surgery, two or three incisions of 1 cm are made and no retractors are used.

Da Vinci Robotic system is the most advanced method that takes the surgery beyond limitations of a human hand with three dimensional high resolution imaging.

In this operation, the surgeon operates four arms of the robot using two main controllers in a consol. Our surgeons are licensed for Da Vinci Thoracic Surgery System. Surgeons can see more details than they can see in an open surgery because of the three dimensional high resolution image on the consol. Robot’s computer system can perfectly and precisely transfer the hand movements of the surgeon. The ribs need not to be separated by a retractor and surgeries can be successfully performed through small incisions of 1-2 cm.

Grup Florence Nightingale Hospitals Thoracic Surgery Department is engaged in preventing, early diagnosis, and surgical treatment of diseases of pectoral organs.

We offer our patients minimal invasive (VATS and Da Vinci Robotic surgery) surgical methods and have the highest experience in thoracic robotic surgery and the largest number of patients with lung cancer in Turkey.

Advantages of minimal invasive thoracic surgery:

• Early and definitive diagnosis
• Low rate of complications
• Smaller surgical incisions and less postoperative pain
• Low rate of infections
• Smaller scar
• Lower blood loss
• Shorter duration of hospitalization
• Shorter time to get back to normal life

Surgeries we perform with Da Vinci Robotic Surgery System:

• Resections of lung cancer and dissection of lymph nodes (segmentectomy, lobectomy and pneumonectomy)
• Thymectomy and other mediasten tumor surgeries
• Wedge resection of lung nodules
• Volume reduction surgeries for patients with emphysema
• Sympathectomy surgeries for hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating of hands)
• Pleural diseases (spontaneous pneumothorax, pleural effusions, pleural tumors)
• Decortication surgeries
• Plication surgery for diaphragmatic paralysis

Fundementals of Group Florence Nightingale Robotic Thoracic Surgery

• Closed operation methods (minimally invasive surgery) which are increasingly prominent in breast surgery operations and performed with the most advanced surgical technology of our time
  • videothoracoscopic surgery (VATS) since 2010,
  • robotic surgery (Da Vinci Robotic Thoracic Surgery) since 2011.
• Robotic Thoracic Surgery at the Group Florence Nightingale Hospitals:
  • is among the five leading centers in Europe with its high number of patients and superior experience in invasive surgery and robotic breast surgery.
  • is one of the rare centers that can perform operations on tumors that spread to the main vein, aorta (in collaboration with our Heart Center).
  • Our team of the Center for Thoracoscopic (VATS) and robotic surgical procedures conducted thymectomy operations from mediastinal masses especially to patients with thymomas and myasthenia gravis, and these procedures are included in the world literature.
  • is one of leading centers, which perform minimally invasive lung cancer surgery (65% when compared to 30% in developed countries)
  • has pronounced low mortality rate after thoracic sugery (below 1% vs. 2-5% in the world)
  • each patient is evaluated and managed according to multidisciplinary approach. Experts from Chest Diseases, Radiology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Pathology, Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine attend to these assessment meetings , and come up with personalised treatment plan for patients.

By filling up the Contact Form below, you can ask questions and/or request more information from our experts about Robotic Thoracic Surgery at the Group Florence Nightingale Hospitals.