BACKGROUND: There is currently no reliable method to predict major postoperative cardiopulmonary complications for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we hypothesized that exercise oxygen desaturation (EOD) and heart rate change results in a stair-climbing test (SCT) would predict postoperative cardiopulmonary complications for patients with NSCLC.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We examined 171 patients (41 females and 130 males) with NSCLC by preoperative SCT from January 2010 to July 2015. Among them, 27 underwent wedge resection, 122 underwent lobectomy, and 22 underwent pneumonectomy. The correlation between postoperative cardiopulmonary complications and parameters of SCT and pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters were analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTS: The overall 30-day postoperative morbidity of the patients was 46/171 (26.9%), with death occurring in 3/171(1.8%). The age, FEV1%, MVV, height of climbing, EOD, and heart rate change were found to be significantly different between the group with postoperative cardiopulmonary complications and those without. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that EOD and heart rate change were independently correlated with postoperative cardiopulmonary complications. In addition, a model predicting the probability of postoperative cardiopulmonary complication based on logistic regression for multivariable analysis was used to confirm our findings.

CONCLUSIONS: A symptom-limited SCT with oxygen saturation monitoring is a safe, simple, and low-cost method to evaluate cardiopulmonary function preoperatively.

Keywords: Causality, Postoperative Complications