Introduction: Prolonged air leak (PAL) is one of the most common postoperative complications after lung surgery. It is associated with increased significant morbidity, lower quality of life, longer hospital stay and higher hospital costs. Since its great clinical and economic burden, it is important to establish the feasibility and the effectiveness of the routinary preventive use of a fibrin sealant in order to reduce the incidence of prolonged air leaks.

Patients And Methods: This is a randomized study on 189 adult patients - 118 men (62.4%) and 71 women (37.6%) aged from 39 to 87 y.o. (mean age 68.3 y.o.) - who underwent lung surgery (lobectomy or bilobectomy) with intraoperatory detection of air leakage, from January 2013 to December 2017, at Department of Thoracic Surgery in "Ospedale Maggiore Carlo Alberto Pizzardi" (Bologna, Italy) and Department of Thoracic Surgery in "Paolo Giaccone" Teaching Hospital (Palermo, Italy). Patients were randomly assigned to the "Glue" arm (90 patients) or the "Control" group (99 patients). We only used stapler or manual suture to achieve aerostasis. In addition, we used a fibrin sealant ("glue") to cover the suture line on patients in the "Glue" arm. The primary endpoints were incidence of prolonged air leaks, days with chest tube and mean hospital stay.

Results: In the "Glue" arm we experienced only 1 prolonged air leak (1.1%), while in the "Control" group there were 8 leaks (8.1%). Patients kept chest tube for average 4.15 days in the "Glue" arm and 4.45 days in the "Control" group. The mean hospital stay was average 7.4 days for the "Glue" arm, while 9.1 days in the "Control" group.

Conclusions: According to our experience it seems that the routinary preventive use of a fibrin sealant results in a lower incidence of prolonged air leaks, a shorter hospital stay with lower hospital costs, representing a cost-effective, feasible and effective system to decrease morbility and mortality among surgical patients.

Download full-text PDF

Source

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

prolonged air
24
"glue" arm
20
air leak
12
thoracic surgery
12
hospital stay
12
fibrin sealant
12
incidence prolonged
12
"control" group
12
lung surgery
8
hospital costs
8

Similar Publications

Unveiling the nexus between irradiation and phase reconstruction in tin-lead perovskite solar cells.

Nat Commun

January 2025

School of Physics and Technology, and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Tin-lead perovskites provide an ideal bandgap for narrow-bandgap perovskites in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, fundamentally improving power conversion efficiency. However, light-induced degradation in ambient air is a major issue that can hinder the long-term operational stability of these devices. Understanding the specifics of what occurs during this pathway provides the direction for improving device stability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

[Climate change and ocular surface diseases].

Ophthalmologie

January 2025

Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Deutschland.

Background: The ocular surface is directly exposed to environmental influences. Noxae that have already been identified for the ocular surface are heat, air dryness, pollutant gases, fine dust particles and ultraviolet radiation.

Methods: The current literature was used to investigate the relationship between frequent ocular surface diseases and various environmental factors and to analyze their development over the years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Magnusiomyces capitatus is an environmental fungus found in soil, water, air, plants, and dairy products which may cause opportunistic infections in patients with haematological disorders resulting in high mortality rates. This series of the first reported cases in Ireland discusses investigation of two patients with underlying haematological disorders, hospitalised in the Irish National Adult Stem Cell Transplant Unit (NASCTU), who developed line-related fungaemias with M. capitatus within a three-month period.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Hydatid cyst (HC) frequently affects the lungs, making it the second most common site after the liver. This study evaluated the clinical characteristics, surgical procedures, complications, laboratory findings, and factors influencing hospital length of stay (LOS) in patients undergoing surgery for pulmonary hydatid cysts.

Methods: This retrospective observational study included adult patients who underwent surgery for lung HC between 2017 and 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prehospital medical care is a major challenge for both civilian and military situations as resources are limited, yet critical triage and treatment decisions must be rapidly made. Prehospital medicine is further complicated during mass casualty situations or remote applications that require more extensive medical treatments to be monitored. It is anticipated on the future battlefield where air superiority will be contested that prolonged field care will extend to as much 72 h in a prehospital environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!