[Complications and mortality of surgery for bronchogenic cancers]

Resection surgery for lung cancer is beset with specific or non-specific complications which often darken the prognosis for life. The specific complications, related to surgical dissections, are mainly per- and postoperative haemorrhages of various origins and, less frequently, disturbances in respiration, nerve wound or chylothorax. Soon after pneumonectomy a bronchial fistula encouraged by different factors may appear (3.3% of the cases) and empyema, usually caused by staphylococci, may develop (3%). Non-specific complications may disturb the post-resection period, involving the lungs (atelectasia, parenchymal infections, acute respiratory failure) or the cardiovascular system (pulmonary embolism, dysarrhythmia). The overall perioperative mortality rate has decreased with time owing to advances in anaesthesia and intensive care: in the hands of certain medico-surgical teams it does not exceed 3%. It is significantly lower in lobar (mean: 4.5%) than in pulmonary (mean: 8.4%) resections. Enlarged resections and lymph node dissections are aggravating factors. Patients aged 70 or more do not tolerate these operations so well: their mean overall mortality rate is twice that observed in younger patients (8% on average and up to 20%). Resection surgery for lung cancer remains a necessarily hazardous procedure but is the only treatment that can cure the patient. Its success is directly conditioned by a good preoperative risk evaluation.