Post-pneumonectomy thoracic drainage: to drain or not to drain? A retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the need for post-pneumonectomy thoracic drainage. METHODS This was a retrospective study of 46 patients having undergone pneumonectomy in the Thoracic Surgery Department of the Londrina University Hospital between January of 1998 and December of 2004. Patients were divided into two groups: those having been submitted to drainage and those not having been. The diseases involved were lung cancer, bronchiectasis and tuberculosis. RESULTS Drainage was used in 21 patients, whereas no drainage was used in 25. The most common postoperative complication was subcutaneous emphysema (12 cases). Hospital stays were of shorter duration among patients who were not submitted to drainage than among those who were (mean, 6.5 days vs. 10.2 days). No serious postoperative complications were observed in the group of patients not submitted to drainage. CONCLUSION The findings that evolutions were more favorable and hospital stays were shorter for the patients not submitted to drainage call into question the need for routine post-pneumonectomy drainage.