Adverse events of lung tissue stapling in thoracic surgery

The use of staplers for thoracic surgery has been regarded as a safe procedure though sometimes adverse events (AEs) of stapling are experienced. The aim of this study is to analyze AEs of lung tissue stapling.

A retrospective multi-institutional review was conducted by 27 institutions of the Central Japan Lung Cancer Surgery Study Group. During the research period, lung tissue stapling was performed 10908 times.

Total number of AEs related to stapling was 81 (0.74%). Seventy events occurred intraoperatively and 11 events occurred postoperatively. Intraoperative stapling AEs were air leakage (n = 26), laceration of the adjacent lung tissue (n = 23), stapling failure (n = 14), oozing (n = 4), and others (n = 3). The postoperative AEs were prolonged air leakage (n = 9), bleeding from the chest wall (n = 1), and postoperative bleeding (n = 1). Only one case died of acute exacerbation of interstitial pneumonia which was induced after completion lobectomy to cure postoperative bleeding. No relationship was seen between the incidence of AE and cartridge colors or compression types of staplers except the length of cartridges.

Lung tissue stapling in thoracic surgery was safe. The most frequent cause of AEs was stapler-tissue thickness mismatch. The appropriate selection of the cartridge color may decrease the AE incidence of the lung tissue stapling.