%0 Journal Article %T Two dimensional versus three dimensional video-assisted mediastinal lymphadenectomy: a meta-analysis %A Divisi, Duilio %A Barone, Mirko %A Zaccagna, Gino %A Crisci, Roberto %J Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery %D 2019 %B 2019 %9 %! Two dimensional versus three dimensional video-assisted mediastinal lymphadenectomy: a meta-analysis %K %X Background: To investigate current role of three-dimensional video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and its differences from conventional flat video-assisted procedures for lymph node dissections in both pulmonary and esophageal cancers. Methods: A PubMed Embase, Google Scholar, OpenDOAR research was carried out according to a prepended Boolean function in order to speculate some difference in mean harvested lymph nodes, blood loss and postoperative chylothorax according to the techniques. Results: Electing six articles, for a total of 1,262 patients (609 3D-VATS and 653 2D-VATS patients), significant differences favouring a 3D approach were found in mean node count [mean difference: 1.56; standard error (SE): 0.23; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.11–2.01, difference freedom (DF) =1,260; t=6.85; P 2 =0.009; 95% CI: −1.61–1.69, DF=1; P=0.926). Conclusions: The management of the hilar and mediastinal lymphatic areas seems to be ameliorated by the adoption of three-dimensional video-assisted strategies potentially significantly influencing patients’ outcome. %U https://vats.amegroups.org/article/view/4842 %V 4 %P %@ 2519-0792