Surgical techniques for pulmonary metastasectomy.

Overview

The surgical approaches to pulmonary metastasectomy have evolved during the past 20 years. Important principles include the complete resection of all gross disease, the use of parenchyma-sparing resections, and the simultaneous resection of bilateral metastases wherever technically feasible. Video-assisted thoracic surgery resection has become popular, but is still not standard because it can lead to an incomplete resection. Stapled and precision electrocautery wedge resections remain the most common techniques for parenchymal resection.