New technology for lung cancer surgery

There is good news for lung cancer patients in Malaysia as a new technology for lung cancer surgery is now available at University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and University of Malaya Specialist Centre (UMSC), offering them painless, cost-effective and shorter hospital stay.

UMMC and UMSC Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr Sivakumar Krishnasamy said the new technology was known as “Uniportal ‘Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery’ (VATS) ”, a technique that allows lung cancer patients to have a smaller single incision which is less painful than conventional surgery.

“We find this technique (Uniportal VATS) is less painful for the patients, they can recover faster and start the next line of treatment earlier. It is only an incision of a small hole about three centimetres and all instruments can go through it with proper training,” he said.

Dr Sivakumar said this to Bernama after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with world-renowned thoracic surgeon Dr Diego Gonzales Rivas, accrediting UMMC as the Malaysia Uniportal VATS Masterclass training centre here, yesterday.