Rapid Discharge After Anatomic Lung Resection: Is Ambulatory Surgery for Early Lung Cancer Possible?

In this single-center series of 430 patients with stage I or II non-small cell lung cancer who underwent minimally invasive lobectomy (n = 200) or segmentectomy (n = 230), 162 (37 percent) were discharged less than 18 hours postoperatively without a chest tube, and 37 patients were discharged the day of surgery. The authors report that there were no perioperative deaths, no deaths in one year of follow up, and no significant differences in readmission rates.