Results of bronchial and tracheobronchial sleeve resection for lung cancer with N2 disease

From 1980 to 1995, 145 patients (pts) with lung cancer underwent bronchial sleeve resection (bsr) (108 pts) or tracheobronchial sleeve resection (tbsr) (37 pts). Regarding nodal status 60 pts had NO disease, 50 pts had N1 disease and 35 pts had N2 disease. The post-operative complications value was 15,7% in the group of pls with bsr and 37,8% in the group of pls with tbsr. The 30-day mortality value was 7,4% in the group of pts with bsr and 13,5% in the group of pts with tbsr. Survival at 5 years was 55,7% for NO status, 32% for Ni status and 13.8% for pts with N2 disease. The 5-year survival rate was 39,7% for pts with bsr and 25,3% for pts with tbsr. We believe that the presence of N2 disease is a contraindication for tbsr and not for bsr.