Physical Stabilization in Post-VATS

The Effect of Physical Thoracic Stabilization on Pain Control in Patients Who Had a Lung Tumor and Received Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Post-video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) pain remains an open issue, though most patients experience less acute pain after VATS than thoracotomy. So far, there was no gold standard regarding pain control post-VATS. Objective: To conduct a randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of physical thoracic stabilization on post-VATS pain control. Method: The investigators aimed to recruit 40 patients with operable lung cancer in the outpatient clinic from January to December 2021. The patients will be randomized into the intervention or control group. The intervention group will receive physical thoracic stabilization with POSTHORAX ThoraxBelt after the surgery, whereas the control group will have standard care. The follow-up period will last for 6 months.

The study has been approved by the hospital research ethics committee. Arm 1: Physical thoracic stabilization with ThoraxBelt after VATS Arm 2: Standard care after VATS Primary outcome: Visual analog scale (VAS) 6 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours after the surgery. Secondary outcomes: The accumulated dose of the intervenous patient-controlled analgesic drug. The dose of oral painkiller administered during the hospital stay. Complications related to the ThoraxBelt. Hospital stay VAS before discharge Unanticipated events (ICU admission, a second surgery, death) VAS during the 2-week, 1-month, 2-month, 6-month outpatient clinic visit after the surgery. Compliance on ThoraxBelt.

video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, VATS, post-operation pain control, patient-controlled analgesia, visual analogue scale, Posthorax Thoraxbelt

The surgeon will not know the patients' group before or during the surgery. The outcome assessor won't know the group during the whole research.

Received ThoraxBelt after the surgery. Standard care for pain management will be the same as the Standard Care Arm.

The patients will be assisted to put on the ThoraxBelt after the surgery by our research member and will be asked to keep it on except for during showering through the whole study period.

A pain score will be assigned to each patient after the total amount of visual analog scale. The minimum is 0 and the maximum is 10, which 10 indicated the most pain.

The number of unanticipated events including ICU admission, a second surgery or death will be documented in both groups.

follow-up 2-week, 1-month, and 6-month after discharge. The minimum is 0 and the maximum is 10, which 10 indicated the most pain.

Inclusion Criteria: Operable lung cancer Eligible for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery Exclusion Criteria: Known allergy to ThoraxBelt Chest wall Infection or other diseases Pregnancy