Risk Factors for Postoperative Acute Exacerbation of Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia Following Surgery for Primary Lung Cancer

Objective: Postoperative acute exacerbation of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP) is a serious complication in patients with lung cancer. This study was aimed to investigate risk factors for postoperative acute exacerbation of IIP in surgery for primary lung cancer. Method: We evaluated retrospectively 37 IIP patients combined with primary lung cancer who underwent lung resection for lung cancer from January 2006 and March 2010. Preoperative and perioperative clinical data were collected and analyzed. Results: Ten of 37 patients (27.0%) developed acute exacerbation of IIP after surgery for primary lung cancer and five patients (13.5%) died of progressive respiratory failure. There was no significant difference in preoperative clinical factors between acute exacerbation (AE) group and non-acute exacerbation (non-AE) group. In perioperative factors, the duration of anesthesia is significantly longer in AE group than in non-AE group. Conclusion: These data suggest that it is unable to predict postoperative acute exacerbation of IIP from preoperative clinical data. Perioperative and postoperative management might be important to prevent acute exacerbation of IIP combined lung cancer.