Surgical outcomes of lung cancer patients with dementia

Abstract

Dementia is a common medical disorder and many surgical procedures carry a higher risk of complications in dementia patients. The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the operative results and prognosis of lung cancer patients with dementia. In this study, 9 consecutive patients with dementia who were diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent an anatomic lung resection between January 2016 and January 2021 were assessed retrospectively. The data included age, gender, duration of treatment for dementia, comorbid diseases, body mass index, symptoms, smoking status, respiratory function test results, localization of the tumor, methods used for preoperative tissue diagnosis, histopathological cell type, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification scores, type of surgical resection, pathological stage, postoperative complications, postoperative tracheostomy, postoperative intensive care, length of the clinic and overall hospital stay, mortality rate, total cost, and length of patient follow-up. All patients in this study had several serious comorbid diseases and high body mass index. Delirium and cognitive function impairment were found in 2/3 of the patients in the postoperative period. All patients developed postoperative respiration-associated complications and extended periods of hospital stay. The mean total hospital cost of the patients was 2.5 times the normal. Finally, the mortality rate was 45%. The lung cancer surgery on dementia patients should be carefully considered because of poor surgical outcomes including increased severe and multiple postoperative complications such as pulmonary complications and delirium, long hospitalization time, and high mortality rates.

Keywords

• Lung cancer
• dementia
• delirium
• surgery
• mortality

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