Nagamatsu Y, Maeshiro K, Kimura NY, Nishi T, Shima I, Yamana H, Shirouzu K.
Eighteen patients who had had a lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection underwent expired gas analysis during exercise testing one week before surgery and two weeks, one month, three months, six months and one year after surgery. The subjects included 7 men and 11 women with a mean age of 70.3 years (53 – 80 years). Exercise testing was carried out on a bicycle ergometer with a graded workload.
The findings of this study showed that exercise capacity continued to improve up to one year after surgery while lung function improved little beyond the values recorded at six months. The extent of the recovery was approximately 80% for lung function and 95% for exercise capacity at one year post surgery.
The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2007; 134: 1273 – 8