Abstract: Objective  To explore the correlation between the occurrence of pulmonary infection after thoracotomy and preoperative pulmonary function indexes in patients with esophageal cancer, and to provide clinical theoretical basis for reducing the incidence of pulmonary infection after thoracotomy. Methods  The clinical data of 80 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent thoracotomy from May 2017 to May 2018 in Qinhuangdao Military Industrial Hospital of Hebei Province were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into infected group and uninfected group according to whether pulmonary infection occurred after operation. The preoperative maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV), MVV as a percentage of predicted value (MVV%pred), forced vital capacity (FVC), FVC as a percentage of predicted value (FVC%pred), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁), FEV₁ as a percentage of predicted value (FEV₁%pred), peak expiratory flow (PEF), PEF as a percentage of predicted value (PEF%pred) of the two groups were compared and analyzed. Logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between pulmonary function indexes and postoperative pulmonary infection. Results  Postoperative pulmonary infection occurred in 24 out of 80 patients (30.00%). There was no correlation between gender (t=1.755, P=0.086), nationality (t=2.125, P=0.073) and the severity of pulmonary infection after operation. Age (t=4.084, P=0.024), smoking history (t=5.881, P=0.001), operation duration (t=3.583, P=0.041), intraoperative bleeding volume (t=5.115, P=0.003) and combined basic diseases (t=4.574, P=0.018) were significantly correlated with the severity of pulmonary infection after operation. MVV (χ²=4.242, P=0.039), MVV%pred (χ²=4.405, P=0.036), FVC (χ²=17.500, P<0.001), FVC%pred (χ²=12.382, P<0.001), FEV1 (χ²=12.070, P=0.001) were associated with pulmonary infection. FVC (OR=9.102, 95%CI: 2.691-28.213, P=0.027), FEV₁ (OR=21.621, 95%CI: 8.956-81.145, P=0.002) and MVV%pred (OR=5.648, 95%CI: 2.979-15.248, P=0.001) were high risk factors for pulmonary infection. Conclusion  Partial pulmonary function indexes are significantly associated with postoperative pulmonary infection. It is necessary to strengthen the detection and improvement of preoperative pulmonary function in order to reduce the incidence of pulmonary infection.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasms, Respiratory function tests, Pneumonia