Chronic sequels after thoracoscopic procedures for benign diseases. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2000;17:687—90.tissues under tension. 5. Conclusion The cause of chronic pain after thoracic surgery has not been established, though some published reports suppor

Objective: Chronic pains after lateral thoracotomy are present in up to 40 % of cases. Chronic sequels after thoracoscopy are less common, but nevertheless, a cause for complaints by patients. Pain often re¯ects a recurrence of malign disease. For this reason, we only investigated patients with benign disease. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the incidence of chronic sequels in a consecutive series of 161 patients who underwent thoracoscopy for benign disease and were not converted to an open procedure. The data from all 144 patients, contactable at the time of investigation, who were at least 2 months postsurgery, were analyzed. Results: Chronic sequels were present in an overall of 31.4 % of patients. Patients complained of chronic pain (20.1%), numbness distal to the incision sites (16.9%) and disaesthesia (8.3%). Painkillers are taken on a regular basis by 82.8 % of patients with chronic pain. The use of Staplers, as well as the number of drains (1 vs. 2) used, were statistically signi®cant (P. 0:05) for chronic sequels. All other investigated factors, such as sex, age, and length of drainage, were not signi®cantly different in the two groups. Conclusion: The thoracoscopic approach is not likely to impact on the prevalenc