[Post-operative pleural infection of lung cancer and its influence on survival]

1139 patients with primary lung cancers resected from 1954 to 1984 are reported. Twelve of them had pleural infection post-operatively, an infection rate of 1%. The infection caused mainly by Staphylococcus aureus developed on Days 5-23 post-operatively. Most of the patients had fever. Closed drainage was applied for each case. Two of these 12 patients survived for more than 5 years. They had Stage 1 and Stage 2 small cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. No significant difference was observed in the 5-year survival rate (33.3% and 30.6%) between the infected group and uninfected group. There was no relation between the post-operative pleural infection and prognosis. With review of related literature, beneficial immunologic response leading to better prognosis might exist in the infected cases, but further observation and discussions are needed.