Current Thoracic Surgery 2021 , Vol 6 , Issue 1
The factors affecting morbidity, mortality and survival in patients who underwent intrapericardial resections due to non-small cell lung cancer
Atilla Pekçolaklar1,Melike Nalbant2,Muzaffer Metin3
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Bursa City Hospital, Bursa, Turkey
2Department of Pathology, Bursa City Hospital, Bursa, Turkey
3Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Yedikule Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Application and Research Center İstanbul, Turkey
DOI : 10.26663/cts.2021.0005 Viewed : 2844 - Downloaded : 1060 Background: Complete surgical resection has been the gold standard in the treatment of lung cancer. Intrapericardial approach may be required to resect the advanced stage tumors completely. This study aims to compare the morbidity and mortality rates of intrapericardial and standard pneumonectomies.

Materials and Methods: The records of patients operated on due to non-small cell cancer between the years 2001 and 2008 were evaluated retrospectively. The data including age, sex, respiratory function tests, tumor site, cell type, stage, resection type, complications, mortality and survival rates were recorded. The morbidity, mortality and survival rates of intrapericardial and standard penumonectomies were compared.

Results: The study included 126 cases with pneumonectomy (90 standard, 36 intrapericardial) with mean age of 56.6 ± 8.42 years. Major morbidity rates of intrapericardial and standard groups were 30.6% and 21.1% respectively, and the difference was not significant (p = 0.233). Mortality rates of intrapericardial and standard groups were 8.3% and 8.9% respectively, and the difference was not significant (p = 0.533). The mean survival of all patients was 24.13 ± 3.13 months. The survival rate was significantly in the intrapericardial group compared to standard group (23 months vs 32 months, p = 0.03).

Conclusions: Intrapericardial approach is a safe method in the treatment of locally advanced lung cancer without increasing morbidity or mortality. Keywords : pneumonectomy, lung cancer, mortality