[Stair climbing test in prediction of postoperative complications after lung cancer surgery]

Preoperative physical state of a patient is very important for adaptation of the patient after lung resections. Purpose of this work is to evaluate an information factor of a stair-climbing test while predicting of postoperative complications after lung cancer surgery. Fifty two patients were examined, who passed lung surgery of different volume. The patients are distributed to two groups: I(st) group included the patients able to climb 1-44 footsteps (n=22/42.3%) and the II(nd) group included the patients able to climb more than 44 footsteps at a moderate speed without stopping for rest (n=30/57.7%). One flight of stairs made up to 22 footsteps with 15 cm of height each. Postoperative myocardial ischemia, disorders of heart rhythm, pneumonias, atelectasis, prolonged artificial ventilation of lungs, sanative bronchoscopy, duration of treatment, and cases of death were registered. It was established that postoperative cardiac and lung complications occurred in 17 patients (32.7%), two patients died (3.8%). Rate of complications between the patients of the I(st) and II(nd) group was 82.4 ir 17.6 percent. Postoperative course was normal for those patients (n=11) who were able to climb five or more flights of stairs. It was noticed that duration of postoperative period has an inverse proportion to a number of the climbed up footsteps. The stair-climbing test is a simple, safe, cheap and informative enough for prediction of postoperative cardiopulmonary complications after lung cancer surgery.