Original article: general thoracicStair-climbing test to evaluate maximum aerobic capacity early after lung resection
Section snippets
Material and methods
One hundred twenty candidates for lung resection for non–small cell lung carcinoma from December 1999 through November 2000 were enrolled prospectively in our study after giving informed consent. Five patients were excluded from the analysis (1 died postoperatively; 4 refused to perform the postoperative exercise test). The remaining 115 patients (88 men and 27 women) formed the database of the study. Ninety-five lobectomies and 20 pneumonectomies were performed through a muscle-sparing lateral
Results
The characteristics of the patients enrolled in the study are shown in Table 1. 22 patients developed 25 complications: 11 prolonged air leaks (lasting more than 7 days), 4 pneumonia, 4 atrial fibrillation requiring medical treatment, 2 fever higher than 38°C for longer than 3 days, 1 atelectasis requiring bronchoscopy, 1 pleural empyema, 1 cardiac failure, and 1 pulmonary edema. Those patients experiencing postoperative complications climbed significantly fewer steps in the preoperative test
Comment
Stair climbing has an honored tradition among surgeons who have used it in the past to screen patients for major operations 9, 10. However, few studies have systematically used this type of exercise in the preoperative evaluation of lung resection candidates 7, 11, 12 and none for assessing the postoperative exercise tolerance.
The appeal of stair climbing is its simplicity and the patients’ familiarity with the exercise, and we consistently use this test for risk stratification before
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