Laser-assisted lung metastasectomy: a systematic review

Laser-assisted resection (LAR) of pulmonary metastases offers several potential advantages compared to conventional surgical techniques. However, the technical details, indications and outcomes of LAR have not been extensively reviewed. We conducted a systematic literature search to identify all original articles reporting on LAR of pulmonary metastases. All relevant outcomes, including morbidity rate, R0 rate, pulmonary function tests, overall- (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) rates were collected. Additionally, a comparison between outcomes obtained by laser-assisted and conventional resection techniques was provided. Of 2629 articles found by the initial search, 12 were selected for the systematic review. Following LAR, the R0 rate ranged between 72 and 100% and the morbidity rate ranged from 0 to 27.5%. The postoperative decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s varied between 3.4 and 11%. Median OS and RFS were 42–77.6 months and 9–34.1 months, respectively. Compared with patients treated by other resection techniques, patients treated by LAR frequently had a higher number of metastases and a higher rate of bilateral disease. Despite this, no significant differences were observed in R0 rate, morbidity rate, and median OS rate, while only 1 study found a lower RFS rate in the LAR cohort. Although selection bias limits the comparability of outcomes, the findings of this review suggest that LAR is a valid alternative to conventional procedures of lung metastasectomy. The main difficulties of this technique consist in the adoption of a video-assisted thoracoscopic approach, and in the pathologic assessment of resection margins.