To assess the incidence of asymptotic pulmonary lesions, the records of 500 consecutive patients who were referred by different physicians for open heart surgery, were reviewed. Three patients (0.6%) were found to have pulmonary pathology of indeterminate aetiology. Pulmonary resections were performed through median sternotomy before (two cases) or after cardiopulmonary bypass (one case). One lobectomy, one wedge resection and one excision of the bulla were carried out. Histopathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma, chondroadenoma and subpleural bulla, respectively. There were no postoperative complications.
The incidental finding of pulmonary lesion in patients who were referred for cardiac surgery is 0.6 per cent in this series and would stress the impotance of careful preoperative evaluation of the chest x-rays by the cardiac surgical team. This limited experience with three patients suggests that simultaneous pulmonary and cardiac operations can be performed safely and offer the advantage of avoiding two separate operations.