Thoracotomy is better than minimally invasive thoracoscopic lobectomy in the lymph node dissection of lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Thoracotomy demonstrates a significant advantage over MITL in LN dissection for lung cancer. Subgroup analyses further indicate the superiority of thoracotomy compared to VATL. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were observed between thoracotomy and RATL in terms of total LNN, total LNS, or N2 LNN. Future studies should incorporate additional high-quality literature to enhance the robustness of these findings.