2014 Masters of Cardiothoracic Surgery- VATS Segmentectomy or Sleeve Lobectomy Video Contest, hosted by Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery(ACS) and Journal of Thoracic Disease(JTD) together, ended wonderfully. The first VATS lung cancer sleeve lobectomy in Hubei Province was carried out successfully by M.D. Fei Xiong from thoracic surgery department, HBCH. This surgery was recommended by twelve famous thoracoscope surgical experts from USA, France, Austrilia, Spanish, etc.. ACS and JTD will publish the related paper recently. The award marks the VATS level in Hubei Province has got international recognition.

    Sleeve lobectomy is the most difficult surgery for lung cancer, because it needs not only to remove the pulmonary lobe, but also to resuture the cut bronchia and rebuild the breath tunnel. The process could be compared to a tailor cuts off a messy sleeve and then resutures it. If M.D. Xiong doesn’t have 20-year “tailor” experience, it would be very difficult to resuture the “sleeve”, even in the open surgery; moreover, the endoscope makes the difficulty upgraded. In fact, resuturing the “sleeve” under endoscope is not a direct operation by hand, but a remote operation by surgical instruments, which request doctor’s high-level operation skills. It is reported that only Peking University People's Hospital, Shanghai Chest Hospital and The First Affiliated College of Guangzhou Medical University in China have achieved this technology, and only Hubei Cancer Hospital could carry it out in Hubei Province.