[Prevention of bronchial fistula and empyema after resection and removal of the lung].

Pulmonectomies in 231 patients and resections of a lung in 320 patients were followed by the development of bronchial fistulas in 33 patients (5.9%): after pneumonectomy--in 17 patients (7.3%) and after lobe- and bilobectomy in 16 patients (5%). Empyema of the pleura was noted in 20 patients (3.6%): in 12 patients (5.2%) and 8 patients (2.5%) correspondingly. Seventeen of 53 patients with these complications died. The use of a manual method of suturing the bronchus without a stump with the local application of fibrinogen, complex bronchological sanitation and intraoperative bronchofibroscopy (drainage of the pleural cavity after pneumonectomy with the following filling of the cavity with an antiseptic solution and formation of the selective pneumoperitoneum) allowed to decrease the incidence of bronchial fistulas in 102 patients to 2.9%, and empyema of the pleura--to 1.9%.