Outcomes and experience of anatomical partial lobectomy

The use of limited anatomic resection for early-stage lung cancer is widely practiced worldwide. However, most studies have focused on standard segmentectomy or subsegmentectomy, and data on the short-term outcomes after anatomic sublobar resection in China are lacking.

In 2014, the use of anatomic partial lobectomy (APL), which is defined as lesion-centered resection of anatomical sublobular parts, was proposed by the National Cancer Center in China. We retrospectively evaluated all consecutive patients who underwent APL between November 2013 and October 2019 from our database, and the operative techniques and short-term outcomes were analyzed.

A total of 3336 patients with a median age of 56 years underwent APL during the study period. Benign lesions were present in 8.5% of all patients and decreased across time. The mean total operation time was 127.3 minutes, the mean overall number of nodal sampling/dissections was 13, and the mean number of stations sampled was 4. Postoperative complications (grade ≥2) developed in 359 patients (10.8%), and no mortality occurred in the 30 days after surgery. Multivariate analysis showed that smoking, surgeon's early experience, thoracotomy or unplanned conversion to thoracotomy, and complex cases were risk factors for the occurrence of postoperative complications.

Despite the increasing proportion of complex cases treated with APL, the incidence of postoperative complications decreased as our center accumulated surgical experience. APL procedures are safe and feasible when conducted in a specialized center.