Clinical retrospective study of releasing the pulmonary ligament or not in the thoracoscope operation of the right upper lobe

Objective To investigate the influence of whether to release the pulmonary ligament on postoperative recovery after thoracoscope operation of the right upper lobe. Methods Sixty-nine patients undergoing thoracoscope operation of the right upper lobe from January 2015 to July 2016 were randomly divided into two groups: 36 cases with pulmonary ligament released; 33 cases not released. Amount of thoracic cavity drainage, time of pulmonary re-expansion, removal time of drainage tube, and incidences of postoperative complications were compared between the two groups. Results There were no statistically significant differences of these factors between the two groups. The drainage tube removal ratio of not-releasing group at 4 and 5 days after surgery were 51.5% and 54.5%, which were significantly greater than 25.0% and 27.8% in releasing group. The difference was statistically significant (χ2=5.155, P=0.023; χ2=5.006, P=0.024). But the drainage tube removal ratio between the two groups at 6 days after surgery was not statistically significant (χ2=3.249, P=0.071). Conclusions Whether to release the pulmonary ligament or not has no effect on recovery after the operation of the right upper lobe resection. Not releasing the pulmonary ligament may contribute to the drainage tube removal earlier which can be applied to clinical. Key words: Non-small cell lung cancer; Operation of lobe resection; Pulmonary ligament; Thoracoscope