[Digital drainage system in the postoperative treatment of thoracic surgical patients].

Introduction: persistent air leak is one of the major complications following pulmonary resections and, in combination with immobilization, it increases the cost of treatment significantly.

Methods: Authors analyzed retrospectively data of 40 consecutive patients of a thoracic surgical unit between 01. March 2011 and 30. October 2011. The mean age of 22 men and 18 women was 61.6 years. They applied electronic chest drainage system for all patients after open or VATS wedge resections or lobectomies. Drains were removed according to the electronical drainage data.

Results: After open wedge resections the drainage time was 57 hours, and 6.2 days of hospital stay. Open lobectomies resulted in 59.8 hours drainage time and 6.8 days of hospital stay. VATS wedge resections were followed by 75.2 hours drainage and 5 days of hospital stay, while VATS lobectomies needed 48 hours duration of chest tubing and 4.5 days of in-patient stay.

Conclusions: Electronic chest drainage systems are easy-to-use, portable and safe, offering objective data of the amount of postoperative air leak, and visualize the trends in graphical format, too. Importantly, early mobilization contributes to cost reduction. In combination with VATS technique surgical stress is significantly reduced as well as postoperative recovery is shortened.