[Effects of smoking on video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy for lung cancer]

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of smoking on a video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy in 83 male patients with clinical stage I primary lung cancer. Forty-two patients who had smoked until 1 week to 2 months before surgery (Smoker group) were retrospectively compared with 35 ex-smokers who had continued smoking cessation for 15 years on average and 6 non-smokers (Non- & Ex-smoker group), regarding the demographic, perioperative, histopathologic and outcome variables. Except for age, cigarette consumption and comorbid chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the two groups showed no differences in the demographic, operative and histopathologic variables. The smoker group demonstrated a significantly younger age (P = 0.0497), more cigarette consumption (P = 0.0086), more COPD (P = 0.0004), longer chest tube drainage (P = 0.0451), longer length of hospitalization (P = 0.0181) and more postoperative complications (P = 0.0278) than the ex- and non-smoker groups. No mortality was observed in either group. The two groups had comparable survival rates. The results indicate that an early cessation of smoking is desirable even when a video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy is performed.