Risk Factors of Postoperative Pulmonary Complications After Surgery for Esophageal Cancer Using Univariate and Stepwise Logistic Regression Analyses

In order to clarify the predictive risk factors of postoperative pulmonary complications after surgery for esophageal cancer, 33 cases undergoing esophagectomy under thoracotomy were evaluated using univariate analysis and stepwise logistic regression analysis. In our department, postoperative pulmonary complications are defined as those demanding respiratory management for more than one week or those needing oxgen administration for more than 2 weeks. Postoperative pulmonary complications were observed in 9 cases (27.3%). With univariate analysis, FEV1.0/m2, MVV/m2 and bledding volume during surgery were significantly different between the cases with and without pulmonary complications, with stepwise logistic regression analysis, FEV1.0/m2, bleeding volume during surgery and duration of thoracotomy were selected as predictive factors of pulmonary complications. Risk score=0.742+0.0001517×bleeding volume during surgery+0.002655×duration of thoracotomy-0.796×FEV1.0/m2 was obtained by multivariate statistical analysis. Significantly high incidence of pulmonary complications was observed in patients with risk socre more than 0.36, These results suggested that to prevent postoperative pulmonary complications, over surgery should be avoided especially in the patients with obstructive pulmonary dysfunction.