*Limitations*

This study was performed in a retrospective and non-randomized setting. The placement of ICCs at our department was started in September 2019 and thus the respective learning curve might have had an impact on the outcome. As the postoperative rate of complications and length of stay did not differ between groups, it is important to also focus on the patients' quality of life and return to work after they are discharged from hospital. In regard to the surging budgetary pressure in the public health care sector and the rising number of resectable lung cancer diagnoses, it is important to prioritize this topic to reduce the strain on mentioned public health care providers [30,31]. Quality of life was not assessed in our study; however, this should be an integral part of any future prospective trials in the field of postoperative pain management.

### **5. Conclusions**

As demonstrated in our study, through the standardized use of ICCs the postoperative need and duration for opioids can be minimized. ICCs represent an easy-to-perform procedure of adjuvant pain managemen<sup>t</sup> for VATS anatomic lung resections. Further studies investigating combinations of various treatment modalities need to be performed in order to optimize postoperative pain managemen<sup>t</sup> regimens and improve length of stay, return to daily routine, and rehabilitation.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization: F.P. and F.A.; methodology: F.P. and F.A.; validation: F.A.; formal analysis: F.P.; investigation: F.P.; resources: F.P., F.A., C.N., H.M., H.D., A.S., P.L., and D.Ö.; data curation: F.P., F.A., C.N., H.M., P.L., and D.Ö.; writing—original draft preparation: F.P.; writing—review and editing: F.A., C.N., H.M., H.D., A.S., and D.Ö.; visualization: F.P. and F.A.; supervision: F.A.; project administration: F.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK (protocol code: UN4424; date of approval: 7 July 2011).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy reasons.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
