Repeat pulmonary resection for lung malignancies does not affect the postoperative complications: a retrospective study

Although repeat pulmonary resection (RPR) for multiple lung cancer has been performed for non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic lung tumor, with the prognostic benefit detailed in several reports, the risk of RPR has not been well analyzed.

Patients with lung malignancies who underwent complete resection at Kanazawa Medical University between January 2010 and October 2019 were analyzed. The relationship between postoperative complications and preoperative and perioperative factors was analyzed. Postoperative complications were categorized into five grades according to the Clavien–Dindo classification system.

A total of 41 patients who were received RPR were enrolled in this study. Primary lung tumor was found in 31 patients, and metastatic lung tumor was found in 10 patients. The postoperative complication rate of the first operation was 29%, and that of the second operation was 29%. While there were no significant factors for an increased incidence of postoperative complication in a multivariate analysis, an operation time over 2 h at the second operation tended to affect the incidence of postoperative complication (p = 0.06). Furthermore, the operation time was significantly longer (p = 0.02) and wound length tended to be longer (p = 0.07) in the ipsilateral group than in the contralateral group. The rate of postoperative complications and the length of the postoperative hospital stay were not significantly different between the two groups.

RPR is safely feasible and is not associated with an increased rate of postoperative complications, even on the ipsilateral side.