[Complications of lung surgery in the aged: relapsing postresection atelectasis (author's transl)].

The authors describe one case of relapsing postoperative atelectasis occurring with considerable severity after an upper left lobectomy for malignancy in a man of 68. Said complication recurred no fewer than six times during a hospital stay of 44 days and constituted a major threat to the good outcome of surgery. The patient was finally discharged in good conditions, and a later recheck revealed no important alterations in the surviving lower left lobe.