Operating room scheduling is not associated with early outcome following elective anatomic lung resections: a propensity score case-matched analysis†

To investigate the effect of operating room scheduling on the outcome of patients undergoing elective lung resection.In total, 420 patients submitted to anatomical pulmonary resections (363 lobectomies, 35 pneumonectomies, 22 segmentectomies) (April 2014-November 2015) were analysed. Ninety-two patients (22%) were operated on during weekends (Friday or Saturday) and 161 patients (38%) in the afternoon. Propensity score matching was performed to account for possible selection bias between the groups. The matched groups (weekdays versus weekends; morning versus afternoon) were compared in terms of cardiopulmonary complications, in-hospital mortality and length of stay (LOS).In total, 102 (24%) patients developed cardiopulmonary complications and 56 (13%) patients developed major complications. In-hospital mortality was 3.1% (13 patients). The case-matched comparison between patients operated on during the week versus those operated on during weekends (92 pairs) showed no differences of cardiopulmonary morbidity (22 vs 24, P  = 0.8), major complications (14 in both groups), mortality (2 vs 4, P  = 0.7) and LOS (7 vs 7.5 days, P  = 0.6). The case-matched comparison between patients operated on in the morning versus those operated on in the afternoon (161 pairs) showed no differences of cardiopulmonary morbidity (32 vs 33, P  = 0.9), major morbidity (17 vs 19, P  = 1), mortality (7 vs 4, P  = 0.5) and LOS (7.2 vs 5.9 days, P  = 0.2).In our setting, operating room scheduling did not affect early outcome following elective lung resections, confirming the appropriate structural and procedural characteristics of a dedicated Thoracic Unit.