The role of pneumonectomy in lung cancer. Analysis of 63 cases
Huang, G.J.; Zhang, D.W.; Zhang, R.G.; Wang, L.J.; Xu, P.Z.; Yang, L.; Cheng, G.Y.; Liu, J.S.; Xiao, Q.L.; Mu, D.X.
Chinese Medical Journal 97(2): 79-83
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0366-6999 PMID: 6088181 Document Number: 231556
Of 504 resections performed for lung cancer from 1961-1981, 63 (12.5%) were pneumonectomies. Right pneumonectomy was done in 17 and left in 46 of the cases, for a right-to-left ratio of 1:2.7. The relatively low percentage of pneumonectomy in this series reflects the strict criteria for choosing this operation (pneumonectomy was reserved almost exclusively for patients who had adequate cardiopulmonary function and in whom, for technical or oncologic reasons, radical eradication of the tumor could not otherwise be achieved; palliative pneumonectomy was avoided whenever possible) and the use of bronchoplastic lobectomy, which constituted 11.3% of all resections and has largely replaced pneumonectomy. Right pneumonectomy should be chosen even more cautiously than left because of the greater functional loss that results. The operative mortality of only 1.6% (1/63) and the 5-yr survival rate of 42.9% in this series imply that the criteria used in selecting patients for pneumonectomy were sound.