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In general, bronchoplasty is a procedure performed on tumors located near the hilar area to achieve radical resection while preserving pulmonary function by avoiding pneumonectomy (1-5). Bronchoplasty requires a rather complicated technique that involves bronchial sutures after division of the bronchus and is associated with the risk of serious postoperative complications, including dehiscence of the bronchial sutures (6). We recently encountered a case of adhesion of the interlobar lymph node to the bronchus, which made conventional left lower lobectomy unfeasible. To avoid bronchoplasty, we successfully performed lingular segmentectomy and left lower lobectomy by devising a unique dissection line.

In thoracic surgery, a thoracic drain is always inserted after the surgical procedure. Repair of the wound after removal of the thoracic tube is performed postoperatively, but no universally standard methods currently exists for this tube removal. Here we report a technique using triclosan-coated sutures that is used in thoracic surgery in our hospital. There are several advantages of this technique. First, there is no need for stitches removal on follow-up. Second, it prevents the leakage of pleural exudate because of the tight two-layer sutures. In addition, it was observed to be superior in terms of both wound healing and cosmetic aspects, due to the layer-to-layer sutures. The use of triclosan-coated sutures helps prevent infection and empyema is quite unlikely to occur as the result of the tight ligating of the muscular layer using these sutures. We applied this method in 168 patients over a period of 24 months. There were no complications on removal of the chest tube such as infection, fluid leakage or opening of the surgical wound.