Lung cancer surgery - preoperative risk assessment and patient selection

Lung resection remains the therapy of choice offering the greatest potentia l for cure in non spread lung cancer. As these procedures have a significan t rate of cardiopulmonary complications, risk assessment and evaluation of functional operability is essential for successful resectional surgery. The most valuable parameters for evaluation of lung function and risk assessme nt are FEV1, DLCO and VO2max as well as the calculation of predicted postop erative lung function. With preoperative preparatory physical therapy and t reatment of comorbidities, also marginal patients may become operabel for r esectional surgery. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reser ved.