[Combined resection of the aortic wall using extracorporeal circulation in lung cancer patients]

Two cases of lung cancer performed combined resection of the aortic wall using extracorporeal circulation were discussed in this paper. One was 59-year old male and another was 63-year old male. Both had squamous cell carcinoma of the left upper lobe. CAT scan suggested the tumor invaded into the aortic wall, main pulmonary artery and left atrium in either patients. For the first case, separated perfusion to the upper half and lower half of his body, and for the second case, perfusion only to the lower half of the body were employed to resect and repair the aortic wall, using Dacron patch. For the first case, the left main pulmonary artery and the left atrial wall were resected in advance under the regular extracorporeal circulation. The first case died of the recurrence of the tumor 1 year and 7 months post-operatively, resulting the hemorrhage into the thoracic cavity. The second case died of empyema resulting massive hemorrhage from the anastomotic site of the patch 3 months post operatively. We think some managements such as the coverage of the synthetic graft with the omentum would be needed.