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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 1999;16:418-423
© 1999 Elsevier Science NL

Closure of the bronchial stump by manual suture and incidence of bronchopleural fistula in a series of 209 pneumonectomies for lung cancer

Clinic Thoracic and Cardio-Vascular Surgery, Hôpital G. & R. Laënnec, 44093 Nantes Cedex 1, France

Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-2-40-16-51-04; fax: +33-2-40-16-51-35

Objective: Bronchopleural fistula after pneumonectomy is a very serious complication, occurring in 1–4% of cases, regardless of the bronchial stump closure technique adopted. The objective of this study was to report a bronchial stump closure technique in pneumonectomy by manual suture (polypropylene running suture) and to study the incidence of bronchopleural fistula. Methods: Between January 1988 and December 1997, 209 patients (186 men and 23 women, mean age=60.5 years) were operated by the same operator. The indication for surgery was lung cancer in all cases. Results: The incidence of bronchopleural fistula was 2.4%; four fistulas during the first postoperative month and another occurred at 6 months; four were located on the left side and one was situated on the right. The bronchial stump was covered in only two of these five cases; 40% died of this complication. Neoadjuvant treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy) was found to increase the risk of development of bronchopleural fistula (40% vs. 7.2%) and this difference was statistically significant (P=0.046). Conclusions: Manual closure of the bronchial stump by running suture, performed on an open bronchus, is a reliable technique with a low incidence of bronchopleural fistula. Those results could be further improved by systematically covering the right and the left bronchial stumps.

Key Words: Pneumonectomy • Bronchopleural fistula • Bronchial suture • Manual suture