Enhanced recovery after surgery in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery.

Background: This study was designed to investigate the clinical outcomes of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) in the perioperative period in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Aim: To investigate the potential enhancement of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) in postoperative recovery in elderly patients with NSCLC.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed the clinical data of 85 elderly NSCLC patients who underwent ERAS (the ERAS group) and 327 elderly NSCLC patients who received routine care (the control group) after VATS at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Peking University Shenzhen Hospital between May 2015 and April 2017. After propensity score matching of baseline data, we analysed the postoperative stay, total hospital expenses, postoperative 48-h pain score, and postoperative complication rate for the 2 groups of patients who underwent lobectomy or sublobar resection.

Results: After propensity score matching, ERAS significantly reduced the postoperative hospital stay (6.96 ± 4.16 8.48 ± 4.18 d, = 0.001) and total hospital expenses (48875.27 ± 18437.5 55497.64 ± 21168.63 CNY, = 0.014) and improved the satisfaction score (79.8 ± 7.55 77.35 ± 7.72, = 0.029) relative to those for routine care. No significant between-group difference was observed in postoperative 48-h pain score (4.68 ± 1.69 5.28 ± 2.1, = 0.090) or postoperative complication rate (21.2% 27.1%, = 0.371). Subgroup analysis showed that ERAS significantly reduced the postoperative hospital stay and total hospital expenses and increased the satisfaction score of patients who underwent lobectomy but not of patients who underwent sublobar resection.

Conclusion: ERAS effectively reduced the postoperative hospital stay and total hospital expenses and improved the satisfaction score in the perioperative period for elderly NSCLC patients who underwent lobectomy but not for patients who underwent sublobar resection.