[Effect of previous and concomitant lung pathology on the postoperative complications in patients with lung cancer].

The Institute's data on postoperative complication development in 247 lung cancer patients with previous or concomitant lung pathology and 206 patients suffering from lung cancer alone were compared for the period of 1975-1984. It was found that after radical surgery pulmonary complications and lethality were much more frequent in lung cancer patients with concomitant lung disease and/or pulmonary pathology in case history (17 and 9.3%) than in patients free from such pathology (8.7 and 3.7%). To illustrate, postoperative pneumonia, bronchial fistula and pleural empyema and acute pulmonary failure were observed in 11.3, 4.9 and 2.4% of cases of concurrent lung pathology, respectively, to match respective 5.3, 2.4 and 0% in the other study group, with pneumonia being the most frequent complication, particularly, after partial resection (13.6%).