Surgical intervention for congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) patients with preoperative pneumonia and abscess formation: "open versus thoracoscopic lobectomy".

AIM: Thoracoscopic lobectomy (TL) and open lobectomy (OL) were compared for treating congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) with preoperative complications, specifically pneumonia/abscess formation (PA).

METHODS

The medical records of 46 CPAM patients treated by lobectomy at our institution from 1990 to 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Four groups, TL for patients without PA (n = 17; TL-), TL for patients with PA (n = 8; TL+), OL for patients without PA (n = 16; OL-), and OL for patients with PA (n = 5; OL+) were compared for operative time, intra/postoperative complications, blood loss, duration of chest tube insertion, postoperative analgesia, pre: postoperative white blood cell (WBC) ratio, and duration of hospitalization.

RESULTS

Operative time for TL+ was longest, but not statistically significant. Incidences of intra/postoperative complications were similar in all groups. Blood loss was significantly less for TL+ versus OL+ (p < .05). WBC ratio was significantly lower in TL+ versus OL+ (p < .05), similar for TL+ and TL-, and significantly higher in OL+ versus OL- (p < .01). Chest tube insertion was significantly longer in OL- versus TL- (p < .01).

CONCLUSION

PA would not appear to be a contraindication to perform TL in CPAM. TL is associated with less surgical stress than OL despite longer operative time.