Extravascular lung water measured using single transpulmonary thermodilution reflects perioperative pulmonary edema...

Pulmonary edema is the most frequent postoperative complication following esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal cancer. We enrolled 23 patients who underwent esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection for thoracic esophageal cancer in a prospective observational clinical trial. We used the PiCCO device to measure extravascular lung water with the aim of determining whether it correlates with the respiratory index and whether it is predictive of pulmonary complications. Based on constant criteria, the tracheal tubes of 11 patients were removed on the morning of postoperative day 1 (extubation group), while 12 patients remained intubated (intubation group). These two groups significantly differed in that all patients in the extubation group recovered without any pulmonary complications, whereas 4 patients (33%) in the intubation group developed pulmonary complications. The extravascular lung water measured using PiCCO correlated significantly with the respiratory index. In the intubation group, both extravascular lung water and respiratory index were elevated 12 h after surgery and were even higher 24 h after surgery. The extravascular lung water measured using PiCCO reflects the level of postoperative pulmonary edema and predicts the pulmonary complications induced by esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection.