Clinical-financial aspects of up-to-date multimodal anesthesia in oncology

The influence of infusion prolonged thoracic epidural analgesia (PTEA) on ventilation and perfusion processes in surgical treatment of lung cancer patients was studied. Ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy showed that in perioperative period the values of ventilation/perfusion ratio (V/Q ratio) and apex-basal gradient of ventilation and perfusion (U/L) in the remaining lung tissue of patients who underwent PTEA corresponded to the normal limits, whereas the marked ventilation-perfusion damage in the operated lung was observed in the control group patients who had no PTEA. Fast normal ventilation recovery of the remaining lung tissue reduced the incidence of postoperative atelectasis and pneumonias, thus reducing the length of resuscitation department stay of patients and reducing the costs for expensive drugs.