Purpose: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is associated with primary lung cancer and an increased risk of postoperative acute exacerbation (AE). Although the preoperative factors associated with AE of ILD are well described, there is little information about the postoperative factors. Thus, the present study focuses on the postoperative management of chest-tube drainage associated with AE of ILD.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart study of 1,309 patients with lung cancer, who underwent pulmonary resection at Shizuoka Cancer Center between September 2002 and January 2011. ILD was diagnosed by chest computed tomography (CT) findings in 95 patients. After the exclusion of 6 patients with a history of pneumonectomy, the subjects of this study were 8 patients who suffered AE after surgery (AE group) and 81 patients (non-AE group) who did not. We investigated the clinicopathological findings and postoperative management of chest-tube drainage in the two groups.
Results: The clinicopathological findings of the two groups did not differ significantly. The chest tubes could not be removed before postoperative day 5 because of pleural effusion in 5 patients (62.5 %) from the AE group and 12 patients (14.8 %) from the non-AE group (P = 0.0040).
Conclusions: The postoperative volume draining from the chest-tube is an important sign of AE of ILD.