Patients' satisfaction with local and general anaesthesia for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery-results of the first randomized controlled trial PASSAT.

Patients were equally satisfied with both types of anaesthesia, regardless of whether the type of anaesthesia was randomized or deliberately chosen. LA is as safe as GA but correlated with shorter length of stay. Almost all patients of the preference arm chose LA. Considering the benefits of LA, it should be offered to patients as an equivalent alternative to GA whenever medically appropriate and feasible.