[Reoperation in primary malignant tumors of the lung operated earlier]

Retrospective analysis of 3,441 operations carried out in the Department of Pulmonary and Mediastinal Surgery, National Research Centre of Surgery, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, from 1963 to 1990 for carcinoma and other malignant tumors of the lung showed that in 19 (0.6%) patients surgical interventions had been conducted on the same lung. Nonspecific pulmonary diseases, tuberculosis, and localized pneumosclerosis proved to be the most common diseases for which the first thoracotomy was performed. The number of such patients is continuously growing, in view of which the authors set them apart into an independent group of patients subjected to repeated operations in lung carcinoma. Approximately in half of these patients (47.4%) the malignant tumor occurred in the lung 8 years and more after the operation carried out for a benign disease; in the others (52.6%) the tumor existed in the lung at the first operation but was not removed due to diagnostic and tactical errors or was a latent carcinoma. It is concluded that timely and proper use of diagnostic methods and a high oncological alertness even during an operation for a benign disease may facilitate improvement of the results of surgical treatment of this category of patients with lung carcinoma.