Clinical Pathway of Video-assisted Lobectomy for Lung Cancer

Abstract

Clinical pathway (CP) has been introduced with the aim of the practice of standard medical treatment and the reduction of medical care expenses. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of CP of videoassisted lobectomy for lung cancer. CP was employed for 64 patients who underwent video-assisted lobectomy from June 2000 to December 2001. Compared with 79 patients before CP introduction, postoperative hospital stay was significantly shortened in cases with CP. Major variances were identified in 7 cases (10.9%), although postoperative complications were not relevant to CP. There were no differences in total costs of hospital treatment. However, medical costs per day tended to be increase. We concluded that employing CP for video-assisted lobectomy was safe and efficient for the shortening of hospital stay and the standardization of medical treatment.