To discuss the surgical outcomes of extended sleeve resection for centrally-located lung cancer.

A retrospective study of 30 patients with centrally-located lung cancer who received extended sleeve resection from March 2014 to September 2015 in Shanghai Chest Hospital. The corresponding data including clinical presentation, operation procedure, perioperative complications and follow-up examinations were reviewed.

There was no intraoperative or perioperative death. 24 of 30 patients underwent complete resection. In all patients, squamous cell carcinoma accounted for the vast majority (20/30, 66.7%), followed by adenocarcinoma (6/30, 20.0%). From the scope of surgical resection, there were 14 cases (46.7%) involving enlarged lobectomy with one-lobed plus segmental resection, and 16 cases (53.3%) involving enlarged two-lobed resection. In our study, there were 14 patients who suffered from postoperative complications, including transfusion in 5 patients, subcutaneous emphysema in 3 patients, arrhythmia in 3 patients, pulmonary infection in 3 patients, bronchopleural fistula in 2 patients, pulmonary atelectasis in 2 patients and chylothorax in 1 patient. During follow-up period, the survival rates for 1-year, 2-year and 3-year were 80%, 56.3% and 44.4%, respectively.

For patients with centrally-located lung cancer, if technique available, extended sleeve resection is an alternative to pneumonectomy.