[Results of treatment of postoperative bronchopleural complications in lung cancer]

An analysis of the results of treatment in 138 patients with bronchopleural complications after 1400 operations on the lung for cancer is given. Conservative methods of therapy (punctures and drainage of the pleural cavity, instillation and of the fisula with 30% silver nitrite and intratracheal injections of antibiotics) were utilized in 105 patients with bronchial fistulas and pleural empyemas. Thirty there patients were treated surgically (tamponade, thoracoplasty, rethoracotomy with suturing of the bronchial fistula, transsternal suturing of the bronchial fistulas). The rate of mortality from bronchopleural complications was 4.8%, i.e. one third of all causes of death. However, recently it reduced more than twice in comparison with the initial period. The direct causes of lethal issues are complications on the part of other organs: pneumonia of the remained lung (24), septicopyemia (12), hemorrhage (10), and others (19).