Abstract
Indications for thoracic surgery may be classified by either diagnosis or type of surgery. In general, surgical procedures are divided into two main groups, diagnostic and therapeutic.
Diagnostic procedures usually comprise non-anatomic resections of the pleura and lung and lymph node extirpation; therapeutic procedures are represented by anatomic resections, mostly for malignant tumors, and non-anatomic resections for benign lesions, excision of mediastinal tumors or decortication and pleurectomy for pleural pathologies. All indications for surgery must be considered by a multidisciplinary team and patients must be adequately prepared for the procedure; this includes risk assessment and setting the limits for anatomic resection with respect to the patient's functional reserve.