Hypervascularized bronchial arteries as a risk factor for intraoperative bleeding and prolonged surgery.

Background The present study investigated whether highly vascularized bronchial arteries affect the intraoperative blood loss and the operative time of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Methods: We retrospectively collected data on consecutive pathological stage I to IIIA non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent VATS lobectomy with systematic lymph node dissection between January 2017 and December 2019. Patients were divided into the following two groups according to bronchial artery diameters on preoperative enhanced contrast computed tomography (CT) findings: ≤2 and >2 mm groups. Results Among the 175 patients enrolled, risk factors for intraoperative blood loss >50 mL were being male (P=0.005), a history of smoking (P=0.01), percent forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0%) 2.0 mm (P 2.0 mm (P 200 min were being male (P 2.0 mm (P 2.0 mm (P=0.024), and experience of surgeon <10 years (P=0.047) in the multivariable analysis. Conclusions Bronchial artery diameter was the most important risk factor of intraoperative bleeding and prolonged operative time during VATS lobectomy.