The Comparison Between Bronchial Occlusion and Artificial Pneumothorax for Thoracoscopic Lobectomy in Infants

To compare the difference between single-lung ventilation with bronchial occlusion and double-lung ventilation with carbon dioxide artificial pneumothorax for thoracoscopic lobectomy in infants.

This was a retrospective study.

It was done in a teaching hospital.

Between March 2017 and April 2020, a total of 72 infants underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy in the authors' hospital.

Twenty-one patients received single-lung ventilation with bronchial occlusion, and 51 patients received carbon dioxide (CO₂) artificial pneumothorax.

The patient data included the endotracheal tube length, surgical exposure, intraoperative blood loss, and surgery duration. The mean arterial pressure (MAP), central venous pressure (CVP) and peak inspiratory pressure (Ppeak), partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (PaO₂), and partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood (PaCO₂) were measured at four points: time of bilateral lung ventilation before the thoracic surgery (T0), 10 minutes after the surgery started (T1), 30 minutes after the surgery started (T2), 60 minutes after the surgery started (T3), and 10 minutes after the surgery was over (T4).

Compared to artificial pneumothorax, the bronchial occlusion group has the following advantages: the surgical exposure was better, the surgery duration was shorter, there was less intraoperative bleeding, and the duration of tracheal intubation was shorter (p < 0.05); bronchial occlusion resulted in a lower MAP but a higher CVP in infants at T1, T2, and T3 (p < 0.05) than the artificial pneumothorax group and resulted in a lower PaCO₂ and higher PaO₂ at T2, T3, and T4 (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in Ppeak between the two groups (p > 0.05).

Compared with CO₂ artificial pneumothorax, bronchial occlusion is more favorable for thoracoscopic lobectomy in infants.