Boston - American Association for Thoracic Surgery

89 TH ANNUAL MEETING MAY 9–MAY 13, 2009BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTSFailure occurred in 10 cases. The overall open conversion rate was 3.2%. There wasonly one postoperative mortality (0.8%). Learning curves generated using CUSUManalysis based on a 90% success rate showed that adequate learning occurred after29 cases (Figure 2). Learning curves generated with the moving average methodindicated that the operation time reached a steady state after 45 cases.During right sided VATS lobectomy, learning curves generated using CUSUM analysisshowed that adequate learning occurred after 37 cases. The operation timereached a steady state after 54 cases within 3 hours.During left sided VATS lobectomy, learning curves showed that adequate learningoccurred after 20 cases. The operation time reached a steady state after 42 caseswithin 3 hours (Figure 3).CONCLUSION: Pertinent learning curves for VAS lobectomy for lung cancer canbe generated using the moving average method and CUSUM analysis. Adequatelearning for VATS lobectomy occurs around 30 cases and a steady operation timewithin 3 hours can be achieved around 50 cases. These results are likely to be usefulin designing VATS training programs and clinical trials aimed at investigatingoutcomes of VATS lobectomy for lung cancer.98