Hintergrund The average age of patients diagnosed with lung cancer is about 70 years old, and
the incidence of lung cancer increases with age. It is believed that older patients
are prone to complications after major lung resection due to age-related physiological
changes and comorbidities, however, the evidence for this remains unclear. The study
aimed to identify whether the postoperative complication rate increases with age in
lung cancer patients. The second goal was to identify predictors of postoperative
complications in the era of minimally invasive surgery.
Material und Methode We retrospectively analyzed 180 consecutive patients with pathologically proven lung
adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Based on the age on admission, patients
were categorized into septuagenarians and octogenarians. Univariate and multivariate
analyses were conducted to detect risk factors of postoperative morbidity. The receiver
operating characteristic curve was generated to determine the diagnostic efficacy
of these risk factors.
Ergebnis There were 141 (78.33 %) and 39 patients (21.67 %) in septuagenarian group and octogenarian
group respectively. 67 (37.2 %) patients experienced postoperative complications.
The 30-day mortality rate was 1.6 %. There was no difference in postoperative morbidity
among the groups. According to multivariate analysis, ECOG score ³ 1 (p = 0.032), lower FEV1/FVC (p = 0.029), and hypoalbuminemia (p = 0.027) appeared to be predictors for the development of major complications after
lung cancer surgery.
Schlussfolgerung Age more than 80 years was not found to be significant for the development of complications
after lung cancer surgery. Hypoalbuminemia is one of the predictors of major postoperative
morbidities.
