Rethoracotomy in thoracic surgery

: Technical progress of recent years allowed thoracic surgery to become a safer procedure. Experience of thoracic operations in our institution counts up to 14 962 cases (1963-2009 yy). Of them 223 (1.5%) patients had rethoracotomies on the reason of various operative complications. 112 patients had the intrapleural bleeding, 56 patients were reoperated on the reason of coagulated hemothorax, 57 patients demonstrated the bronchial stump insufficiency, and 11 were reoperated on other reasons. The frequency of rethoracotomy had decreased from 2.5 to 0.2%. The on-time rethoracotomy allows to save the patients' life and do not aggravate the overall result of the treatment.