Chest tube is routinely used after thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery for evacuating air and fluids. Development of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) makes the disadvantages of traditional drainage clearly. In this review, we summarized the advantages and disadvantages of small-bore chest tube, the use of digital drainage system, the time of removing the chest tube, the indications of non chest tube, the improvements of drainage tube hole suture and the complications of chest tube placement after thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery.
ObjectiveTo explore the association between C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR) and prognosis of lung cancer patients.MethodsWe searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang and Chongqing VIP databases for eligible studies evaluating the predictive role of CAR for the prognosis in lung cancer from establishment of databases to November 30, 2018. The Stata 12.0 software was used to conduct the meta-analysis and the pooled hazard ratio (HR) was used to assess the association between CAR and prognosis of lung cancer.ResultsA total of 1 903 lung cancer patients from 6 retrospective studies were included in the current meta-analysis and all the patients were from Asian countries. The results showed that patients with elevated pretreatment CAR were significantly correlated with worse overall survival [HR=1.75, 95% confidence interval (1.53, 1.99), P<0.001] with low heterogeneity (I2=25.9%, P=0.240). Subgroup analyses based on the country, pathology and treatment further demonstrated above findings.ConclusionsElevated pretreatment CAR is a negative predictor for prognosis in Asian patients with lung cancer. More researches with big sample size and high quality from non-Asian countries are still needed to verify our results.
ObjectiveTo explore the correlation of preoperative D-dimer (DD) level with prognosis in Chinese esophageal cancer patients.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, SinoMed databases were searched to identify potential studies which assessed prognostic value of preoperative DD level in Chinese esophageal cancer patients from the establishment date of each database to March 20, 2019. The Stata 12.0 software was applied to conduct the meta-analysis and the hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was combined to evaluate the relation between preoperative DD level and survival of Chinese esophageal cancer patients.ResultsA total of 5 studies involving 1 277 patients were included. The quality score of each study was ≥6 points. The results showed that the elevated preoperative DD level was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS, HR=1.49, 95%CI 1.05-2.10, P=0.025) and cancer-specific survival (CSS, HR=1.83, 95%CI 1.39-2.42, P<0.001). However, no significant relation of preoperative DD with disease-free survival (DFS) was observed (HR=1.55, 95%CI 0.89-2.70, P=0.125).ConclusionHigh preoperative DD level may be an independent prognostic factor for Chinese patients with esophageal cancer. More prospective studies with bigger sample sizes are still needed to verify our results.
ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between metformin use and the risk and prognosis of esophageal cancer in patients with diabetes.MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science, EMbase, VIP, WanFang and CNKI databases were searched by computer to identify relevant studies from inception to August 21, 2021. Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) was used to evaluate research quality. The STATA 12.0 software was used to conduct the statistical analysis.ResultsA total of 14 studies involving 5 605 218 participants were included finally. NOS of all researches were≥6 points. The pooled results indicated that metformin use could decrease the risk of esophageal cancer in diabetics (OR=0.84, 95%CI 0.71-1.00, P=0.045), and could also prolong the overall survival of diabetics with esophageal cancer (HR=0.89, 95%CI 0.80-0.99, P=0.025).ConclusionMetformin use can not only decrease the risk of esophageal cancer in patients with diabetes, but also improve the prognosis of diabetics with esophageal cancer significantly. However, more prospective high-quality studies are still needed to verify the conclusion.
ObjectiveTo clarify the effectiveness of preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation (PPR) and provide evidence for the application of PPR on lung cancer patients by meta-analysis.MethodsAccording to inclusion and exclusion criteria, literatures related to PPR on lung cancer patients were retrieved from major databases between the date of establishment of each database and January 2019, and then data required were extracted from the selected literatures. Meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.0.ResultsTwelve randomized controlled trials were involved in meta-analysis, including 658 patients who were well-diagnosed and prepared for surgery, with 307 patients in the PPR group and 351 patients in the control group. The results of the meta-analysis showed that in the PPR group, the pulmonary function including forced vital capacity [MD=0.31, 95%CI (0.21, 0.42), P<0.01], forced expiratory volume in one second [MD=0.27, 95%CI (0.20, 0.34), P<0.01] and activity tolerance including 6-minute walk distance [MD=50.55, 95%CI (35.98, 65.13), P<0.01] were significantly better than the control group, and the postoperative complication rate was lower ［MD=0.28, 95%CI (0.18, 0.43), P<0.01］, postoperative hospital stay was shorter [MD=–2.09, 95%CI (–2.41, –1.77), P<0.01].ConclusionsA period of PPR on lung cancer patients can improve postoperative pulmonary function and activity tolerance, and reduce postoperative complications and hospital stay, which is beneficial to postoperative recovery.