From 1981 to 1987 44 patients over 75 years of age were treated surgically at Shimada Municipal Hospital, 32 with neoplastic lung diseases, six with infectious lung diseases, four with emphysematous lung diseases and two with other disorders.
Lobectomy was performed in 19 patients and partial lung resection in seven.
The medical history included hypertension in 15 patients, diabetes mellitus in six, pulmonary tuberculosis in six and stroke in six. Postoperative complications were abnormal ECG in seven patients, insufficient expectoration of sputum in 10 patients, urinary tract infection in two patients, senile dementia in two patients.
Of eight patients with APC on ECG, PAT was observed postoperatively in two, one of whom developed Adams-Stokes syndrome.
In the patients with preoperative obstructive ventilatory dysfunction (FEV1/FEV less than 70%) insufficient expectoration of sputum occurred postoperatively. In these patients sputum was removed by a flexible bronchofiberscope.
Three patients died within 30 days after surgery (an operative mortality rate of 6. 8%); the cause of death seemed to be continuous air leakage through a fistula.