Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will reduce the cardiopulmonary function and increase perioperative risk. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of preoperative short-term high intensity lung rehabilitation training on lung function and postoperative complications in patients with COPD who are eligible for lung cancer surgery. METHODS: We analysis of 101 patients with COPD and a diagnosis of lung cancer, with 43 patients in pulmonary rehabilitation group and 58 patients in conventional group. The pulmonary function, postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) and length of stay (LOS) will be compared between the two groups, the lung function will be compared before and after the rehabilitation at the same time. RESULTS: There were no significant difference between the two groups in general information, lung function before surgery, postoperative pulmonary infection [8 (18.6%) vs 17 (29.3%)], atelectasis [1 (2.3%) vs 1 (1.7%)], respiratory failure [1 (2.3%) vs 2 (3.4%)] and postoperative LOS [(8.93±3.78) d vs (9.62±3.98) d, P>0.05]. In the rehabilitation group, the FEV1 [(2.06±0.45) L vs (2.15±0.45) L, P<0.001] and PEF [(4.32±0.90) L/s vs (5.15±1.05) L/s, P<0.001) were higher, and PCO2 [(42.42±2.79) mmHg vs (41.58±2.98) mmHg, P=0.009] was lower after rehabilitation, significantly. The increase value of FEV1 in moderate to severe COPD group was higher than that of the mild COPD group after the rehabilitation [(0.16±0.05) L, 8.6% vs (0.06±0.05) L, 2.8%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The short-term highly-intensity lung rehabilitation can improve lung function in lung cancer patients with COPD, and the improvement of pulmonary function in moderate to severe COPD patients is more obviously.