Early discharge after lung resection is safe: 10-year experience

Minimally invasive techniques in anatomic lung resection have been associated with reduced post-operative complications and shorter length of hospitalization (1,2). Although the average length of stay (LOS) after thoracoscopic lung resection is 6 days, a subset of patients is likely eligible for accelerated discharge (3,4). Accelerated care pathways in thoracic surgery have been proposed to facilitate early discharge (ED) after thoracic surgery (5,6). Some of these protocols have proposed discontinuing the chest tube on post-operative day (POD) 2 or 3 as a method to reduce hospitalization (7). Other studies have advocated for discharge on the first POD after lung resection, but the safety of this approach is unknown (8,9). Despite anecdotal support for ED, this approach has not been studied