ABSTRACT
For a long time thoracoscopy was performed to achieve pneumonolysis in patients with tuberculosis. More recently many physicians in Europe have documented the usefulness of thoracoscopy for pneumonological indications other than tuberculosis. Taking into account that the evolution of medical technologies incited physicians to seek new and potentially less invasive ways of performing diagnostic and therapeutics chest procedures, a distinction must be made between medical thoracoscopy, which may be video-assisted, and surgical thoracoscopy or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) (1, 2).
