Video-assisted thoracic surgery for patients with lung cancer and interstitial pneumonia.
OBJECTIVE
A serious complication following primary lung cancer surgery on patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP) is the postoperative acute exacerbation of IP. Because few studies have examined the feasibility of using video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) on these patients, we reviewed our experience with this technique.


METHODS
We examined 78 patients; 11 had IP (IP group) and 67 did not (non-IP group).


RESULTS
Patients in the IP group were older than those in the non-IP group (p = 0.097), and they had a significantly higher incidence of squamous cell carcinoma than patients in the non-IP group (p = 0.002). Dominating the IP group, though not statistically significant, were males, the intention to undergo VATS, and limited surgery. VATS was performed on 10 lesions in the IP group and on 45 in the non-IP group. No surgery-related exacerbation of preoperative IP or development of postoperative IP was found in either group.


CONCLUSIONS
VATS is the preferred surgical choice for lung cancer patients with IP.
Departments of Surgery and Respiratory Medicine, Jikei University Kashiwa Hospital, Chiba, Japan.
Tadashi
T
Akiba
Hideki
H
Marushima
Hidejiro
H
Kawahara
Masamichi
M
Takagi
Jun
J
Hirano
Makoto
M
Odaka
Kozo
K
Nakanishi
Hiroshi
H
Takeyama
Susumu
S
Kobayashi
Toshiaki
T
Morikawa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000601:surgery*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000601:surgery*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011013:Pneumonectomy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted