THE IMPORTANCE OF MAXIMAL OXYGEN CONSUMPTION TEST IN THE ESTIMATION OF COMPLICATIONS FOLLOWING POSTOPERATIVE LUNG RESECTIONS

Ahmet Sami Bayram, Tarık Candan, Hüseyin Dülger, Muharrem Erol, Metin Özcan, Cengiz Gebitekin

Uludağ Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Göğüs Cerrahisi Ana Bilim Dalı, Bursa

Background: In the preoperative period, routine pulmonary function testing (PFT) and symptom-limited exercise testing were applied to the patients, who were planned to have major lung resection, to evaluate the importance of maximum oksygen consumption in predicting postoperative mortality and morbidity.

Methods: This study included 55 patients (49 male and 6 female) who under went major lung resection. According to the results of the exercise tests, patients were divided into two groups as the ones with VO₂max value lower (V₁) or higher (V₂) than 15 mL/kg/min. On the other hand, the results of the PFT lead to a segregation of patients as those whose FEV₁ values were lower than 2 liters (S₁) and those with FEV₁ values higher than 2 liters (S₁). The mean age of cases was 56 years (20-74).

Results: A total of 2 patients (3.6%) had mortality. A total of 19 patients (34.5%) had morbidity. None of the patients with VO_{2 max} value higher than 20 mL/kg/min had mortality or morbidity.

Conclusions: Measurement of maximal oxygen consumption has successfully predicted postoperative mortality-morbidity.

Keywords : Lung resection, pulmonary function test, oxygen consumption

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