Management After Mini-Thoracotomy Without Chest-Tube

Chest-tube insertion has been the common practice after spine surgery to prevent and cope with postoperative hematoma, CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) leakage, and pneumothorax after transthoracic approach spine surgery. However, the chest-tube had the disadvantage of not only disturbing the early walking after surgery due to the weight of the linked water seal chamber, but also causing injury to the lung due to the form of tube. Patients without air leakage due to visceral injury, chest-drain (hemovac) may be able to replace these shortcomings.