Bypass Operation for Unresectable Esophageal Cancer: Postoperative Complications After Thoracotomy Versus No Thoracotomy

The importance of muscle-sparing thoracotomy for the treatment of postresectional complications after thoracotomy.

We read with great interest the article of Athanassiadi et al. [1] ‘Muscle-sparing versus posterolateral thoracotomy: a prospective study’ which elegantly compares the two approaches for thoracic surgery. Based on the results of their prospective study Athanassiadi et al. concluded that the rates of occurrence of acute and chronic pain and morbidity are equivalent after lateral muscle-sparing t...

Effects of doxapram on postoperative pulmonary complications following thoracotomy.

An i.v. solution of 5% dextrose with doxapram 2 mg ml-1 or 5% dextrose alone was administered to 53 patients following lateral thoracotomy. Estimations of arterial PO2, PCO2 and pH were made before operation, during infusion and 7 days after after operation. Respiratory function tests were carried out before and 7 days after operation. There were no significant differences in arterial PO2, PCO2...

Perioperative Pregabalin for Postoperative Pain Relief after Thoracotomy

Background: Pregabalin is efective both at controlling postoperative pain and preventing chronic neuropathic pain. Local anaesthetic iniltration is a simple and inexpensive method to provide postoperative analgesia. In this study we tested the hypothesis that pregabalin administered perioperatively combined with continuous wound infusion will aid better the post-thoracotomy pain management comp...

Pain control after thoracotomy.

Lung injury after thoracotomy.

Postoperative respiratory complications are the commonest problem after all types of thoracic surgery. The exact incidence depends on the type of surgery and the preoperative health and lung function of the patient, but rates of up to 50% are often quoted. 2 Most of these complications are diagnosed as either `pneumonia' or `postoperative atelectasis'. However, the role of microbiological patho...