ABSTRACT
The beneficial effects of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) on patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on pulmonary function and exercise performance has been established. However, the impact on nutritional status and prognosis has not been demonstrated. In the present study, we investigated the changes in nutritional status in COPD patients undergoing bilateral thoracoscopic LVRS and also analyzed the relationship between nutritional status and postoperative complications and prognosis. After LVRS, body weight, fat-free mass (FFM) and caloric intake were significantly increased. Increase in FFM correlated significantly with improvement in exercise performance. In underweight patients before LVRS, the incidence of post-operative complications was significantly higher than in normal-weight patients, and a patient who was moderately-to-severely underweight (% ideal body weight < 80%) had a significantly poor prognosis. These findings suggest that improvement of nutritional status after LVRS contributes to improvement in exercise performance, and that preoperative nutritional status has a significant impact on postoperative morbidity and mortality. From our data, we concluded that preoperative nutritional assessment is an important part of the preoperative evaluation of LVRS, and that LVRS provides nutritional benefits for underweight patients with severe COPD.
