[Complications after resection of the apical and posterior lung segments in pulmonary tuberculosis]

The frequency of complications in the early postoperative period after resection of the upper and posterior lung segments was investigated in 153 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. When the operation was performed on the right lung the complications were twice as frequent as in the patients operated on the left lung (65.1 per cent against 33.3 per cent). The difference was defined by the frequency of atelectases. In the operations on the right lung they amounted to 31.7 per cent and were segmental (atelectasis of the anterior segment) while in the operations on the left lung they amounted to 11 per cent and were mainly total. Segmental atelectases of the 3rd segment in the patients operated on the right lung developed due to the peculiar segmental structure of the operated lobe and specific spatial transfer of the remaining anterior segment after its suture. Pleural complications observed in 22.2 per cent of the operated patients were due to the non-hermetic primary suture in the lung.