[Early complications after pleuro-pulmonary surgery. Study based on 217 operated patients]

In a study involving 217 patients who had undergone thoracotomy, the authors noted 85 complications in 77 patients with a mortality of 2.5 per cent. Respiratory complications were the most common but never ended in death. By contrast, cardiac complications are the most severe. The absence of mortality of respiratory origin is certainly the result of regourous pre-operative selection based upon overall and separate pulmonary function studies. The great rarity of pulmonary embolism is related to routine postoperative preventive heparin therapy.