Annual report of thoracic surgery services at the Shanghai Chest Hospital in 2020

Abstract

Background: The thoracic surgery team of the Shanghai Chest Hospital has been publishing its annual report since 2018, summarizing the services and major progress over the last year. Methods: All patients receiving thoracic surgery services at the Department of Thoracic Surgery and the Department of Oncological Surgery at the Shanghai Chest Hospital in 2020 were enrolled. The number of surgical resections, types of surgical procedures, disease histological types, and perioperative outcomes were collected and compared with the results from previous years. Results: In the year 2020, the thoracic surgery team of the Shanghai Chest Hospital faced the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. A total of 15,664 patients received thoracic surgeries at the Shanghai Chest Hospital, only an 8.0% decrease compared with the previous year of 2019, despite of the COVID pandemic. These included 13,493 pulmonary procedures, 1,075 esophageal procedures, 969 mediastinal procedures, 66 tracheal procedures, 2 lung transplantations, and 59 other procedures. The rate of minimally invasive surgeries among all procedures was 91.1%, including 721 robotic-assisted thoracic surgeries, both of which increased from the year before. In addition, the average length of hospital stay continuously decreased, being only 3.82 days after pulmonary surgery and 10.96 days after esophageal surgery. Meanwhile, the quality of thoracic surgery has improved, with continuously lower rates of perioperative complications and an in-hospital mortality rate of only 0.14%. Conclusions: The services provided and progress made in 2020 by the thoracic surgery team of the Shanghai Chest Hospital were reviewed in this annual report, reflecting a consistent effort to help our patients with high-standard services and state-of-the-art surgical techniques.