Pneumonectomy for lung cancer: technical and general aspects

The current role and technical aspects of pneumonectomy for the treatment of lung cancer are evaluated based on the personal experience and on the review of the international literature. Over a four-year period 669 operations for lung cancer were performed. Fifty-nine were pneumonectomies 11 of which were completion pneumonectomies and 7 tracheal sleeve right pneumonectomies 5 of which performed with the anesthesiological tube always kept in trachea. Overall postoperative mortality was about 10% for pneumonectomy, and about 16,6 % for completion pneumonectomy with a median survival rate of 21 and 26 months respectively. In agreement with reports of the international literature, it is confirmed that pneumonectomy is a high-risk thoracic surgical procedure and an accurate cardiovascular and respiratory evaluation is very important for patient selection.