PERIOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT IN THORACIC-SURGERY

The quality of perioperative treatment for patients undergoing thoraci c surgery is of the utmost importance for postoperative morbidity and mortality. Hence, it was the purpose of this study to examine various aspects of our own procedure. The clinical course following 812 succes sive thoracotomies in 792 patients over a period of 3 years was docume nted and analysed. The overall complication rate was found to be 19.7% , with a mortality of 3.8% over a 30-day period. Secretostasis, atelec tasis and pneumonia were the most common complications. Owing to the p redeposition of autologous blood, the percentage of patients requiring allogeneic blood transfusion was reduced from 27% to 9%. There was no evidence suggesting an increase in the complication rate or a longer stay in hospital. Perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis has reduced pos toperative wound infection significantly. Similar reductions in the FE V1 are recorded following thoracic surgery, irrespective of the amount of lung tissue resected. This observation indicates that the remainin g lung tissue is severely compromised throughout the postoperative per iod and that the surgical trauma alone is a major factor influencing p ostoperative pulmonary function for at least 2 weeks.