Carmelina Cristina Zirafa

Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana · Centro operativo multidisciplinare di chirurgia robotica

Platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome (POS) is an uncommon clinical condition characterized by orthostatic dyspnea and hypoxemia. The case of a female patient who manifested postoperative episodes of sudden oxygen desaturation, dyspnea, and systemic arterial hypotension following lower bilobectomy for lung adenocarcinoma was reported. After meticulous cli...

Primary focal hyperhidrosis is an idiopathic condition characterized by excessive sweating, predominantly localized in the hands and armpits. This condition affects about 1% of the general population and it is often associated with a deterioration of the Quality of Life (QoL), especially in younger patients. Medical therapy, usually prescribed as a...

Introduction Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer incidence and mortality worldwide. Neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy has led to clinical benefits in resectable NSCLC in comparison to chemo-therapy alone. Major pathological response (MPR) and pathological complete response (pCR) have been used as surrogates of neoadjuvan...

Background: Robotic surgery is increasingly used in the treatment of lung disease. Intraoperative catastrophes, despite their low incidence, are currently a critical aspect of this approach. This study aims to identify the incidence and management of catastrophic events in patients who underwent robotic anatomical pulmonary resection; (2) Methods:...

Robotic-assisted pulmonary resection has greatly increased over the last few years, yet data on the application of robotic surgery in high-risk patients are still lacking. The objective of this study is to evaluate the perioperative outcomes in ASA III-IV patients who underwent robotic-assisted lung resection for NSCLC. Between January 2010 and Dec...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to analyse the outcomes in 53 patients with thymoma, 34 of whom had myasthenia gravis (MG), who were treated with robotic surgery. The oncological outcomes of the whole series of patients were analysed. Furthermore, because consistent data are not yet available in the literature, the main focus was the analysis...

Background: Robotic-assisted thoracic surgery has been shown as a safe and feasible surgical procedure to treat a broad range of thoracic malignancies with a shorten hospital stay, a quicker return to normal daily activities and superior quality of life compared to open approach. Nonetheless, its utilization has predominantly been restricted to th...

Nodal upstaging takes place when unsuspected lymph node metastases are detected by pathological evaluation, after surgical treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. In early stages non-small cell lung cancer, nodal upstaging amounts to 4.8%-24.6%, depending on several factors, such as accuracy of preoperative staging, localisation and size of tumou...

Background Surgical resection with minimally invasive approach is the gold standard for both definitive diagnosis and treatment of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN), however it can be difficult to pinpoint small, deep or sub-solid nodes without palpating lung parenchyma. The primary endopoint of this study is showing that radio-guided surgery is a c...

The original version of this article, unfortunately, contained an error. In Fig. 2 - panel d, incorrect image was published and this is now presented correctly in this article.

Even though robotic-assisted surgery is increasingly used for resection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), data on long-term oncologic outcomes of robotic surgery are still not well defined. The primary endpoint of this review is to analyse the long-term results of robotic lobectomy in NSCLC patients. A systematic research was performed using t...

Background: Pulmonary metastasectomy is considered a potentially curative treatment for selected patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). Several prognostic factors have been analysed, but to date, it is still not well defined which is the optimal resection margin during lung metastasectomy (LM). This study analyses the long-term results...

Robotic surgery has the features to represent the future of surgery, considering the rapid evolution of its technology and the resulting in the surgical field. In the last years, the robotic technique in thoracic surgery has progressively become widespread in the word, particularly for the treatment of the mediastinal and pulmonary lesions. The dev...

Objective(s) Robotic lobectomy is becoming a widespread surgical procedure in NSCLC treatment, but data on oncologic outcomes is still lacking. The aim of this study was to analyze long term oncologic results of robotic lobectomy for non small lung cancer. Methods Clinical records of consecutive NSCLC patients underwent robotic major surgery, betw...

Background: Open pulmonary resection is considered the gold standard treatment of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, in the last decades, the use of minimal-invasive techniques has given promising results. Survival in lung cancer, after surgery, depends on the number of pathological nodes (pN), thus lymph nodal upstaging can...

Background: The da Vinci® Table Motion (dVTM) comprises a combination of a unique operating table (Trumpf Medical™ TruSystem® 7000dV) capable of isocenter motion connected wirelessly with the da Vinci Xi® robotic platform, thereby enabling patients to be repositioned without removal of instruments and or undocking the robot. Materials and methods...

The application of Robotic technology in thoracic surgery has become widespread in the last decades. Thanks to its advanced features, the robotic system allows to perform a broad range of complex operations safely and in a comfortable way, with valuable advantages related to low invasiveness. Regarding lung tumours, several studies have shown the b...

Background: The da Vinci Table Motion (dVTM) is a new device that enables patients to be repositioned with instruments in place within the abdomen, and without undocking the robot. The present study was designed to compare operative and short-term outcomes of patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery with the da Vinci Xi system, with or withou...

Background: The incidental detection of solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) is currently increasing due to the widespread use of computed tomography (CT) during the follow up in oncological patients or in screening trials. A quick and definitive histological diagnosis of these nodes is mandatory as, in case of primitive lung cancer, an early detection...

Currently there is no universally accepted surgical therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The goal of surgery in this dismal disease is a macroscopic complete resection (MCR) and there are two types of intervention with a curative intent. At one side, there is the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) which consists in an en-bloc resection o...

We report an incidental discovery of the superior pulmonary vein coming from a strange anatomical location when performing a robotic left lower lobectomy. When trying to identify the superior pulmonary vein, an aberrant pulmonary vein was found leading into the innominate vein.

During the last decade, an abundance of papers has supported minimally invasive pulmonary resections (MIPR) vs. traditional open approach. Both video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) and robotic thoracic surgery have shown better perioperative outcomes and equivalent oncologic results compared with thoracotomy, confirming the effectiveness of the M...

According to National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines concerning non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), robotic lobectomy is considered an advisable oncologic procedure for patients with lung cancer, with no anatomic or surgical contraindications. At present DaVinci is the only available robotic system (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyva...

The already low invasiveness of the thoracoscopic treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax may be further reduced by the transcollation® technique. Herein, we report our further experience with a new device, to coagulate blebs and bullae, compared with contrast to endostapler resection. Data of patients with recurrent or persistent spontaneous pneumot...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyse the results of robotic lobectomy for lung cancer, evaluating the evolution of technique and technology. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients who underwent robotic lobectomy for clinical early-stage lung cancer, during the period 2006-2012. Group 1 included 69 patients op...

The demand for adequate tissue sampling to determine individual tumor behavior is increasing the number of lung nodule resections, even when the diagnosis is already recognized. Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is the procedure of choice for diagnosis and treatment of small pulmonary nodules. Difficulties in localizing smaller and deeper nodu...

In our previous study, we observed that the presence of autoimmune thyroid disease worsens fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms. The aims of this study are to evaluate whether there is a predisposition for the development of FM in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) with or without subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and in patients with SCH alone and wh...

Several studies have been carried out in order to investigate surface electromyography (SEMG) response on fibromyalgic (FM) patients. Some studies failed to demonstrate differences between FM patients and healthy individuals while others found differences in SEMG parameters. Different muscular region have been analyzed in FM patients and heterogene...