Preoperative Assessment of Mechanical Ventilation Requirement after Surgical Treatment ofEsophageal Cancer

Background: The risk of pulmonary complications after esophagectomy is higher than after any other common operation, including major lung resection. In this study, we sought to identify risk factors associated with the development of pulmonary insufficiency requiring mechanical ventilation to identify preoperative parameters involved in the estimation of the risk of pulmonary insufficiency.Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study on consecutive patients undergoing esophagectomy for malignancy in the Thoracic Surgery Department of Modarres Hospital in Tehran from March 2002 to February 2006. Patients were assigned into two groups based on whether they required mechanical ventilation or not. Preoperative, operative, and postoperative data were compared among the two groups. To find predictive variables for requiring mechanical ventilation,backward stepwise regression analysis was carried out with risk factors as independent variables and the need for ventilatory support as the dependent variable.Results: The study population included 77 males and 43 females with a mean age of 60.16±12.04 years (range 29–79 years). Twenty-seven patients (27.7%) required mechanical ventilatory support. Multivariate analysis revealed sex (Odds ratio: 4.590, CI 95%: 1.248-16.411) as a confounder and duration of operation (Odds Ratio: 1.677, CI95% : 1.102-2.533) as a risk factor for requiring mechanical ventilation. Conclusion: Proper patient selection for esophagectomy is important for reducing the postoperative mortality and morbidity and benefiting from a radical resection.