[Complications after pulmonary resection]

This retrospective study analyses the postoperative complications of the 587 lung resections performed at our department in the period of 1993--1996. Of 587 resections 435 ones were performed for bronchogenic cancer. The mean age of the patient at the time of operation was 53.3 years ranging from 9 to 79. 30 patients were 70 years old and older. In that group there were 452 men and 135 women. The most frequent resection procedure was lobectomy (61.2%) followed by pneumonectomy (19.8%), wedge resection (11%), bilobectomy (6.1%) and segmentectomy (1.9%). Bronchoplastic procedures made up 6.5% of all procedures. 5 patients died within 30 days of the surgery (mortality 0.85%). 3 of them had undergone pneumonectomy (mortality 2.6%) and 2 of them lobectomy and bilobectomy (mortality 0.5%). Postoperative complications occurred in 89 patients (15.2%). In this group the mortality was significantly higher for the patients after pneumonectomy. The morbidity was significantly higher for patients 70 years or older (23.3%). The morbidity after pneumonectomy (9.5%) was not higher than the morbidity after less extensive resections. We conclude, that low incidence of mortality and major morbidity reflects careful preoperative management, selection of appropriate surgical procedure and anesthestesia and postoperative care.