The role of body mass index in postoperative complications of surgical treatment for early-stage lung cancer cases

Abstract

Aim: Body mass index is an important condition that may affect postoperative complications. Although there are studies on this subject in the literature, we aimed to reveal the relationship between body mass index and complications in lung cancer surgery more distinctly by limiting the factors that may directly affect postoperative complications such as operation type and staging. Methods: Patients undergoing thoracotomy and lobectomy for early-stage primary lung cancer in our clinic between January 2014 and October 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The demographic characteristics of the 292 patients and their body mass indexes (BMI) were grouped in line with the recommendation of the World Health Organization and analyzed in terms of postoperative complications and length of stay. Results: The mean age of the cases was 61.93±0.55 (34-86) years, and the mean body mass index was 26.89±0.30 (16.44-58.27) kg/m². The mean BMI value was 17.40 kg/m² for group 1, 22.55 kg/m² for group 2, 27.25 kg/m² for group 3, and 33.75 kg/m² for group 4. At least one complication developed in 71.4% of the cases in group 1, these values were 58.5% - 52.8% - 35.2% for group 2, group 3, and group 4, respectively. It was determined that cases with high body mass index had a lower risk of developing complications in the postoperative period (p=0.003). Conclusion: We found that body mass index is a factor that can give an idea about postoperative complications, prolonged air drainage, and hemorrhage in patients for whom resection is planned due to lung cancer.

Keywords

• Body mass index
• complication
• lung cancer
• thoracotomy