[Value of sophisticated explorative techniques of the pulmonary function in the preoperative evaluation of...

In order to estimate the preoperative evaluation of the respiratory risk, a well adapted clinical examination associated with a routine pulmonary function test (VC, FEV1) can be sufficient. Although some patients with cardiopulmonary disorders or candidates to lung resection need more complex assessments: the flow-volume loop to detect small airways obstruction (MEF 50%, MEF 25%), measure of bronchial hyperreactivity to predict bronchospasm during anaesthesia, residual volume for the diagnosis of emphysema, diffusing capacity (DCO) to discover lung fibrosis: these parameters disruption always make the pronostic worse. It is also useful to couple together preoperative function test and pulmonary scintigraphy to predict post-operative values after lung resection. But, these criteria for operability are not always a good indicator of post-operative complications. So it is possible to use in addition the results of exercise testing to determine cardio-respiratory performances and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2MAX) which seem better correlated with mortality and post-operative lung surgical complications. Preliminary results of our study concerning thirty patients hospitalized in Besancon-St-Jacques Hospital, agree with the hypothesis that exercise testing is an important criterion in the pre-operative evaluation and to predict post-operative mortality and morbidity of patients candidates to thoracic surgery.