[Bilateral pneumonectomy in metastatic pulmonary tumors]

Until December 1978, 91 patients with metastatic pulmonary tumors underwent thoracotomy. Twenty nine of the 91 had bilateral metastases. Of the 29 patients, 24 underwent bilateral thoracotomies and 5 underwent thoracotomy on only one side. Of the 29 patients, 7 (24.1%) survived more than 5 years. These were patients with gestational choriocarcinoma (3), fibrosarcoma (1), renal adenocarcinoma (1), granulosa cell tumor (1), and giant cell tumor of the bone (1), respectively. Size of metastatic pulmonary lesions did not correlate with postoperative survival period. Patients with smaller number of metastatic pulmonary lesions tended to have longer survival period. One patient with preoperative vital capacity of 2 liter and FEV1.0 of 1.56 liter complained of severe dyspnea postoperatively.