Original articleGeneral thoracicPneumonectomy: The Burden of Death After Discharge and Predictors of Surgical Mortality
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
The dataset was assembled using databases available through the cd-link program through the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences from 2005 to 2011. Data was collected from the Ontario Cancer Registry, Ontario Health Insurance Plan claims, Canadian Institutes for Health Information Discharge Abstract Database, and the National Ambulatory Care Reporting Service database. The study was reviewed and approved by the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Research Ethics Board.
All patients in Ontario
Results
There were 505 patients undergoing pneumonectomy in the study, 300 of whom (59.4%) were men. The median age was 60 to 65 years, and the median length of stay was 6 days (range, 1–30 days). Overall patient characteristics of those who were discharged alive are summarized in Table 1, and frequencies of comorbidities are presented in Table 2. Within 90 days of the operation date, 221 (43%) patients received chemotherapy, 45 (8.9%) patients received radiation therapy, and 37 (7.3%) visited the
Comment
This study presents the prominent but overlooked burden of death that exists in the postdischarge setting among patients undergoing pneumonectomy for NSCLC. More than half of postpneumonectomy deaths occurred after discharge. Examination of all pneumonectomy procedures in Ontario from 2005 to 2011 confirmed that mortality has not improved over time, which is discordant with reports of other surgical procedures 15, 16, 17. Although mortality in the studied population is comparable to current
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