[New developments in surgery of pulmonary metastases]

Two groups of patients, 107 between 1977-1986 and 122 between 1987-1991, who underwent surgery for pulmonary metastases, were compared with each other. The most frequent primary sites were the kidney and the testes in the first and the kidney and the colon-rectum in the second group. We recorded a 1-year survival rate of 79% and a 5-year survival rate of 37% in the first group. In the second group there was a 3-year survival rate of 53%. Our analyses are showing that more metastatic lesions are usually found at operation than indicated by CT scan preoperatively. The discrepancy amounts to 19% in presumably solitary metastases and increases to 50% and more if two or more lesions were identified preoperatively. Therefore, bilateral exploration is advocated as a standard procedure in pulmonary metastatic surgery.