Clinical-epidemiological study on the incidence of postoperative complications after pulmonary resection for lung cancer.

Aim: To determine the relationship between the characteristics of a group of lung cancer patients, lung cancer surgeries, and the incidence of early and/or late postoperative complications.

Material And Methods: The study included a group of 115 lung cancer patients aged 40 to 85 years, 76.5% men, 60.91% living in urban areas, who received surgical treatment in the interval January 2013-August 2014. Data were collected from electronic medical records and survey sheets and processed and interpreted using Pearson correlation index (p-value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant and of <0.005 highly statistically significant), and chi2, y, 1c = 25% tests. All statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical software package version 13.0.

Results: Of the 115 patients 7.8% were in the 40-50 years age group and 87.8% in the 51-75 years age group (p < or = 0.001). Most patients were males (76.5%, p < 0.001), and 60.9% of the patients were living in urban areas (p < or = 0.05). The difference in the prevalence of smokers (76.5%) vs. non smokers (23.5%) was highly statistically significant (p < 0.005). Active smoking of one pack of cigarettes per day for more than 10 years was recorded in 54.8%. The presence of co morbidities (17 events) and the distribution of neoplastic lesions in the five anatomical areas required the performance of lobectomies, bilobectomies or pneumectomies. The incidence of early (14 entities) and late postoperative complications (7 entities) depended on patient's general condition, nature of co morbidities, location and stage of neoplastic lesions, and surgical complexity.

Conclusions: Lung cancer, in various locations and stages, most commonly affected males aged 40-85 years, from urban areas, smokers, with various co morbidities. Surgeries performed in these patients were often laborious and with a relatively low incidence of postoperative complications.