Is it safe to omit any chest x-ray before removing the chest drain after elective, non-cardiac thoracic surgery? A single-center, retrospective, case-control study.

Objectives Every patient undergoing non-cardiac thoracic surgery will receive several chest x-rays through the perioperative period. Depending on the hospital, the patient might receive a preoperative x-ray as a baseline, several postoperative x-rays till the removal of the chest drain as well as x-rays after the removal. This routine has been established in the thoracic surgical practice but has several disadvantages, for the patient, the health care system and the medical staff. Purpose of this study was to examine if all x-rays before removal of the drain can be omitted.