for mediastinal staging of the patients with lung cancer?

Background: In this study, we aimed to compare standard mediastinoscopy (SM) with video-assisted mediastinoscopy (VAM) for mediastinal staging of the patients with lung cancer in terms of safety profile, complication rates, mediastinal station, and lymph node counts.Methods: Data of 551 patients who were admitted to our clinic between January 2006 and January 2011 with the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and were scheduled for surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Age and sex of the patients and cell type of the tumor were recorded. A total of 361 patients (65.5%) had SM, while 190 patients (34.5%) had VAM.Results: Of the patients, 63.2% (n=96) who underwent VAM and 70.1% (n=218) who underwent SM were diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. N-2 nodal involvement was detected in 66 of 361 patients (18.3%) who underwent SM and 60 of 190 patients (31.6%) who underwent VAM (p