Proper management of chest drainage after pulmonary lobectomy is a topic that every thoracic surgeon must face up to. Reasonable chest drainage plays a critical role in postoperative normal physiological recovery. However， there are still controversies and discrepancies in many aspects of chest drainage management after pulmonary lobectomy. In this review，we focus on five aspects of chest drainage management after pulmonary lobectomy，including the choice of chest drainage system，single or double chest tubes，suction or not，treatment of persistent air leak，and removal of chest tube.
ObjectiveWe aimed to further investigate the feasibility of using small bore chest tubes or even without chest tube insertion after da Vinci robot-assisted thoracic surgery. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed initial 70 patients between September 12, 2014 and March 30, 2015 as a control group at the department of thoracic surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, and proposed four schemes. There are 31 males and 39 females with mean age of 57.1±9.8 (ranged from 30-80 years). We applied those four schemes for the last 30 patients as an experimental group. There are 12 males and 18 females with mean age of 58.8±8.1 (ranged 42-73 years). ResultsThe days in hospital after surgery ranged 2-25 days and there was no severe complication. After the surgery, the pain scores of the trial group are lower than that of the control group. And the schemes 1 and schemes 2 of trial group reduced significantly than the control group (P<0.05). There is no significant difference of the rate of the complication caused by poor drainage between the trial group and the control group (P>0.05). But the pain score after surgery is lower than that of the control group (P<0.05). ConclusionOptimizing thoracic drainage strategy after da Vinci robot-assisted thoracic surgery is safe, possible and helpful to relieve postoperative pain.
ObjectiveTo compare and evaluate the application of two types of chest drainage in patients who had undergone the lung lobe resection. MethodWe retrospective analyzed the clinical data of 240 patients who underwent left lobe resection. The patients were divided into a single conventional drainage group with single chest drainage tube (normal group) and a single conventional drainage tube combined with drainage of disposable surgical negative pressure drainage ball (NPBD) (combination group). There were 140 patients including 86 males and 54 females at mean age of 48.76± 4.92 years in the normal group. There were 100 patients including 58 males and 42 females at mean age of 48.37± 4.56 years in the combination group. We compared the outcomes between the two groups. ResultThe postoperative pathological results revealed there were 12 patients with tuberculosis (TB), 87 patients with squamous carcinoma, and 41 patients with adenocarcinoma in the normal group; 5 patients with TB, 66 patients with squamous carcinoma, and 29 patients with adenocarcinoma in the combination group. There were statistical differences in postoperative hospital stay (11.35± 2.78 d vs. 9.33± 2.46 d), chest drainage tube indwelling time (6.75± 2.10 d vs. 8.28± 2.10 d), total volume of chest drainage (1 176.07± 384.62 ml vs. 926.50± 22.35 ml) with P values less than 0.001 between the normal group and the combination group. No statistical difference was found between the two groups in complications (P>0.05). ConclusionSingle conventional drainage tube combined with drainage of disposable surgical negative pressure drainage ball (NPBD) has more advantages than single conventional chest drainage tube drainage, and is worth to be applied popularly in clinic.