Population-based requirements for thoracic surgery.

In order to determine the population-based requirement for thoracic surgery, we identified of the thoracotomies undertaken upon Olmsted county, Minnesota, residents in a 10 year period. There were 674 initial operations and 78 reoperations among 689 residents. The age-adjusted incidence rate for all thoracotomies in the community was 99.6 per 100,000 person-years. Rates generally increased with age and were greater for men, with an age-adjusted male: female ratio of incidence rates of 2.1 : 1. Age-adjusted rates for urban residents were nearly twice as great as those for rural residents of the county. Sixty percent of the operations were performed for cardiovascular disease, 30% for pulmonary disease, and 10% for all other chest conditions. The incidence of operations for all three of these subgroups increased substantially during the 10 year study period. If the Olmsted County experience for 1976-1979 is applied to the 1980 United States population, an estimated 300,000 thoracic operations would be required. The operations could entail the use of nearly 6 million hospital bed-days and over 1 million operating room hours.