Meditation Breathing Training and Short-Term Recovery in Patients Undergoing Thoracoscopic Lung Cancer Resection: A Non-Randomized Historical-Control Study

Objective: To investigate the association of meditation breathing training with short-term physical and mental recovery in lung cancer patients after thoracoscopic lobectomy. Materials and Methods: A non-randomized historical control study design was adopted. A total of 62 patients (31 per group) diagnosed with lung cancer and receiving thoracoscopic surgery at our hospital between January 2023 and June 2024 were enrolled. Patients were allocated by admission period: 31 patients admitted from January to September 2023 were set as the control group (routine care and standard breathing training); another 31 patients admitted from October 2023 to June 2024 were assigned to the experimental group (additional meditation breathing training, twice daily for 10 minutes, from postoperative day 2 to discharge). Randomization and blinding were not applied. The primary outcome was exercise capacity (6-minute walk test, 6MWT); secondary outcomes included dyspnea (Borg scale), pain (Visual Analogue Scale, VAS), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS), training compliance, and postoperative recovery indicators. Results: Following the completion of the targeted intervention, the experimental group showed greater improvements in exercise capacity (adjusted mean difference: +51.64 m; 95% CI: 17.28 to 86.00), dyspnea (adjusted mean difference: − 0.65; 95% CI: − 1.11 to − 0.19), pain (adjusted mean difference: − 0.52; 95% CI: − 1.00 to − 0.04), and anxiety (adjusted mean difference: − 1.37; 95% CI: − 2.43 to − 0.30), and higher training compliance (87.1% vs 64.5%; OR: 3.71; 95% CI: 1.04 to 13.25) compared with the control group; however, the between-group differences in the primary outcomes did not remain statistically significant after Bonferroni correction (adjusted P = 0.019, 0.034, 0.173, 0.064, and 1.000 for exercise capacity, dyspnea, pain, anxiety, and depression, respectively). No significant between-group differences were observed for depression scores, postoperative pulmonary complications, chest tube duration, or hospital stay. Conclusion: In this non-randomized historical-control study, meditation breathing training was associated with improvements in selected short‑term outcomes including exercise capacity, dyspnea, and training compliance; suggestive reductions in pain and anxiety were also observed, though these did not retain statistical significance after Bonferroni correction. Confirmatory randomized controlled trials are required.