This research represent an attempt to study the postoperative results among 32 patients who underwent complete resections of primary lung and involved mediastinal lymph nodes between January 1988 and June 1993. Ages ranged from 34 to 73 years
with
a
mean age of 51.31*8.17 years. There were 29 male patients(90.6%). Left lung cancers were more frequent than right lung cancers.
There were 19 cases of left lung cancers accounting for 59.4% of the total lung cancers. The difference, however, was insignificant. There was no T1 lesion. T2 and T3 lesions were 21 (65.6%) and 11 cases(34.4%), respectively. As for cell type,
squamous
cell carcinomas were reported in 25 cases making up 78.1% of the cell types. Pneumonectomy was conducted on 20 (62.5%) cases. Lobectomy and sleeve lobectomy were conducted on 12 (37.5%) cases respectively. Mediastinal lymph node involvemednts
were
most
frequent in subcarinal lymph node(9/13) among right lung cancers, while subaortic lymph noce(12/19) was most frequent among left lung cancers. Postoperative complications were reported in 18.9% of total cases, including 2 cases each of paralysis
of
the
recurrent laryngeal nerve and 1 case each of chylothorax and pyothorax. They were more frequent among patients who underwent pneumonectomy. The operative mortality stood at 3.1% with 1 patient who underwent pneumonectomy dying of pulmonary edema.
The
1-year and 5-year survival rates were 50.8% and 30.1%, respectively. Patients treated with squamous cell carcinoma, involvement of single level mediastinal lymph node and lobectomy showed a higher level of survival. These fidings suggest that a
long-term survival can be expected of a considerable number of N2 non-small cell lung cancer patients with a selective complete surgical resection of primary lung cancers involved mediastinal lymph nodes. (Korean J Thoracic Cardiovas Surg 1994;
27:922-9)
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