Background: We analyzed our thoracic surgical interventions performed at our center in 2006 in an attempt to establish a reference for future studies and to present our experience derived from these procedures.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1,701 thoracic surgical interventions (1,532 patients) performed under general anesthesia by four thoracic surgery clinics of our hospital in 2006. The accuracy of the results were discussed and confirmed at meetings attended by the chiefs of our thoracic surgery clinics.

Results: The most common thoracic surgical interventions were thoracotomy (n=810, 47.6%), mediastinoscopy (n=329, 19.3%), videothoracoscopy (n=258, 15.2%), and bronchoscopy (n=209, 12.3%). Anatomic resections (n=348, 22.7%) included pneumonectomy in 115 patients, lobectomy in 230 patients, and segmentectomy in three patients. The number of anatomic resections performed for lung carcinoma was 310 (20.2%). Mortality occurred in 23 patients (1.5%), which resulted from cardiac causes or pulmonary emboli (n=9), respiratory insufficiency (n=7), hemorrhage (n=3), or other causes (n=4). Bronchopleural fistula was seen in 10 patients (10/345, 2.9), following pneumonectomy (n=8, 7.0%) and lobectomy (n=2, 0.9%). Rethoracotomy was required in 25 patients (25/785, 3.2%), the most frequent causes being hemorrhage (n=12), prolonged air leaks (n=5), and bronchopleural fistula (n=4).

Conclusion: Periodical assessment of the results of interventions performed in surgical clinics will significantly contribute to improvements in the results of these interventions in the future years. On our part, these systematic retrospective assessments enabled our results to reach international standards. A national database system is necessary to compare our results with those of other centers.

Keywords : Mortality; thoracic surgery/complications.