COMPLETION PNEUMONECTOMY - EXPERIENCE WITH 47 CASES

From 1982 through March 1994, fourty-seven patients underwent completion pneumonectomy for a reappearing lung cancer, lung metastases, late complications, benign lung diseases, and early complications of bronchial or pulmonary artery sleeve resections. Intraoperative bleeding was higher than in standard pneumonectomy; there was one intraoperative mortality (2.3 %). Operative mortality wits 14.9 % overall but was 3.6 % in completion pneumonectomy for lung cancer, 20 % for late complications and benign disease, and 57 % for the treatment of early complications of sleeve resections. Three and five-year survival in patients with lung cancer who survived the operation was 43.8 % and 28.7 % according to the Kaplan-Meier method; no significant difference in long-term survival was present between patients with a second primary lung cancer or recurrence. Completion pneumonectomy is indicated in reappearing lung cancer and should be considered in benign disease when a less invasive procedure is not available. Completion pneumonectomy for the treatment of early complications of bronchial or pulmonary artery sleeve resections has a very high mortality but no alternative is available.