Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 16, 2023; 11(8): 1862-1868
Published online Mar 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i8.1862
Gastroparesis after video-assisted thoracic surgery: A case report
Hang An, Yu-Cun Liu
Hang An, Yu-Cun Liu, Department of General Surgery, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China
Author contributions: An H contributed to manuscript writing and editing and data collection; Liu YC contributed to conceptualization and supervision; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Cun Liu, MD, Professor, Department of General Surgery, Peking University First Hospital, No. 8 Xishiku Street, Beijing 100034, China. 2011110327@bjmu.edu.cn
Received: January 7, 2023
Peer-review started: January 7, 2023
First decision: January 17, 2023
Revised: January 19, 2023
Accepted: February 21, 2023
Article in press: February 21, 2023
Published online: March 16, 2023
Processing time: 58 Days and 23 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: While postoperative gastroparesis is quite common in patients undergoing vagotomy for peptic ulcers and pylorus-sparing pancreatoduodenectomy, there are few reports following lobectomy. We report a rare case of gastroparesis after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Since there was no evidence of drug-induced or electrocyte disorder-related gastrointestinal dysfunction, intraoperative periesophageal vagal nerve injury was most likely to account for gastroparesis. Clinicians should keep in mind that there is a potential possibility of vagal nerve injury after thoracic surgery even without direct nerve operation. For patients suffering gastroparesis after video-assisted thoracic surgery, conservative treatment, including gastrointestinal decompression and prokinetic medicines, can help relieve symptoms.