To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of single-port thoracoscopic surgery for thymoma.

22 patients with thymoma were randomly divided into two groups, 10 patients in single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery group (VATS group) and 12 patients in thoracotomy group. Perioperative indicators such as length of incision, intraoperative blood loss, operation time, postoperative chest volume, and extubated time of both groups were observed. The postoperative inflammation index, pain score, and total incidence of complications in both groups were compared.

The length of surgical incision, extubated time in the VATS group were much shorter and the intraoperative blood loss, postoperative thoracic drainage were much less than those in the thoracotomy group (P<0.05). However, there was no difference in operation time (P>0.05) . The white blood cell count and CRP level in the VATS group were much lower than those in the thoracotomy group both on Day 1 and Day 5 after operation (P<0.05). The VAS pain scores on Day 5 after operation in the VATS group were significantly lower than those in the thoracotomy group (P<0.05), no matter rest or after activity. The clinical effective rate was 90% in the VATS group and 83.33% in the control group(P>0.05).

The short-term clinical efficacy of single-port VATS thymoma combined with anterior mediastinal fat culling is just a safe and feasible method for the treatment of thymoma as thoracotomy. Meanwhile, it has the advantages of smaller trauma, lighter pain, less complications and rapid recovery.