Table 1. Some of the studies published in literature comparing VATS and open technique in thymic malignancies.

Author, year and country	Type of study	N (VATS/open)	Morbidity and mortality	Blood loss	Hospital stay	Recurrence rate	Survival
Friedant, 2016, USA (1)	Systematic review and meta-analysis	1,355/683	No difference	No difference	Shorter in VATS	No difference	No difference
Xie, 2015, Australia (2)	Systematic review	540/521	Less pneumonia, no difference in mortality	Less in VATS	Shorter in VATS	No difference	No difference
Manoly, 2014, UK (3)	Retrospective case series	17/22	Less pneumonia, no difference in mortality	Less need for transfusion in VATS	Shorter in VATS	No difference	No difference
Sakamaki, 2014, Japan (4)	Retrospective case series	71/11	No difference	No difference	NS	No difference	Lower in open group
Jurado, 2012, USA (5)	Retrospective case series	77/186	No difference	Less in VATS	Shorter in VATS	No difference	No difference

NS, not stated.