What preparations are needed before surgical treatment of lung cancer? It is best to know these before lung cancer surgery

Surgery is the most common method for treating gastric cancer. The fastest and most effective way to treat cancer is surgery. However, in the surgical treatment of lung cancer, it also has relatively more requirements, because patients will also cause pathogens to varying degrees when they suffer from the disease, which also varies from person to person. Therefore, the treatment methods will also be different. So, what preparations do patients and their families need to make before surgical treatment of lung cancer? Let's take a look together.

Preparation before lung cancer surgery includes oncological preparation and surgical preparation. Once the lung cancer patient is diagnosed and staging examinations to be eligible for surgical indications, the attending physician will develop a series of preoperative clinical examinations related to lung resection.

Ask the patient's medical history in detail and understand the patient's overall health status. Complete the examination of important organ functions and understand whether there is a history of drug allergies and previous surgical history. The focus of preoperative examinations in thoracic surgery is on lung function and heart function tests. Pulmonary function tests are used to confirm whether the remaining lung can compensate. Blood gas analysis is used to determine the excretion function of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. Electrocardiograms and cardiac ultrasound examinations are performed to confirm whether the heart can withstand open-chest lung resection surgery.

Medical staff will also instruct patients on how to exercise their lung function before surgery and conduct effective coughing training after surgery.

Lung cancer patients must quit smoking before surgery, as smoking has an adverse effect on lung surgery. Smoking can irritate the respiratory tract, weaken the ability of cilia in the trachea to clear mucus, lead to sputum accumulation, and affect postoperative sputum discharge; thoracotomy itself is a kind of damage to healthy lung tissue. The remaining lung after lung resection is prone to atelectasis, and the chance of lung infection is significantly increased. Medical staff will warn smokers to stop smoking immediately and quit smoking for at least 2-3 weeks before surgery.

An enema or laxatives should be taken the day before the operation. Eating and drinking should be prohibited after 10 pm before the operation. Hypnotic drugs should be taken as usual. All jewelry, contact lenses, dentures and wigs should be removed before entering the operating room.

For elderly patients with other diseases, such as lung cancer patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease and diabetes, it is important to consult with doctors from related disciplines before surgery. Active treatment of the combined diseases is very important for the success and safety of the surgery. Especially for patients who receive chemotherapy before surgery, it is necessary to conduct examinations to evaluate the efficacy.

Commonly used pulmonary function tests in clinical practice include vital capacity (VC), maximum ventilation volume (MVV), and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). Forced expiratory volume in one second is the percentage of forced vital capacity (FEV1%). It is generally believed that when VC accounts for the percentage of predicted value (VC%) ≤ 50%, MVV accounts for the percentage of predicted value (MVV%) ≤ 50%, FEV1 or FEV1% & 50%, the risk of thoracotomy is very high. It is generally believed that there is no contraindication to surgery for MVV% ≥ 70%, and those with 69% to 50% should be carefully considered; those with 49% to 30% should be as conservative as possible or avoid surgery, and those below 30% are contraindicated for surgery.