Completion lobectomy after thoracoscopic segmentectomy on the left side should be approached with thoracotomy.

Background: Lung segmentectomy is widely used to treat early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the risk of local recurrence in the ipsilateral lobe is increased and the surgical treatment of the local recurrence could be a real challenge. The aim of this study is to report our experience in a consecutive series of patients undergoing completion lobectomy (CL) after thoracoscopic segmentectomy.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all the medical charts of the patients who underwent thoracoscopic segmentectomy for early-stage NSCLC (cIA) between January 2015 and December 2023, focusing on patients who had NSCLC recurrence in the ipsilateral lobe treated with CL.

Results: Among the 263 segmentectomies performed, 13 patients (4.9%) experienced local recurrence in the ipsilateral remaining lobe, of whom 9 (3.4%) underwent CL, including 5 in the left upper lobe, with a median interval of 31 months between procedures. All patients underwent CL through thoracotomy with the need of central isolation in 5/9 (55.5%); rupture of the pulmonary artery occurred two patients and vascular sleeve resection was necessary in one. No postoperative deaths were observed, complications occurred in 5/9 patients with major complications, defined as Clavien-Dindo grade >3b, in 2/9 (22.2%) patients. Median hospital stay was 11 days. At the end of follow-up 2 patients had distant recurrence 12 median months after the CL.

Conclusions: CL in the left side could be considered a challenging procedure also after minimally invasive segmentectomy and we consider safe to perform CL with thoracotomy due to a scar tissue formation between the bronco-vascular structures leading the need for extensive hilar dissection and central isolation of the pulmonary artery.