Sublobar Resection for Pulmonary Aspergilloma: A Safe Alternative to Lobectomy

Background This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of sublobar resection for the treatment of pulmonary aspergilloma compared with lobectomy. Methods Patients with pulmonary aspergilloma who underwent lobectomy or sublobar resection in our department between March 2007 and December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Data were collected for patient demographic characteristics, medical history, preoperative investigations, perioperative findings, postoperative conditions, and recurrence status. Propensity-matched comparative analyses were performed to adjust for potential differences of patients’ baseline characteristics between the groups. Results A total of 96 patients underwent lobectomy, 46 patients underwent attempted sublobar resection. The median follow-up time is 53 months. No recurrence was found in either group. Three patients (3.1%) in the lobectomy group required reoperation for bleeding. The patients who underwent sublobar resection had less underlying lung disease ( p = 0.031), smaller lesions ( p = 0.033), and were more likely to have been treated with video-assisted thoracic surgery ( p < 0.001). These differences were eliminated by propensity score matching (46 pairs were successfully matched). Comparative analyses in matched groups demonstrate that there was no marked difference in the volume and duration of chest drainage or the length of postoperative hospital stay. However, the patients with sublobar resection had shorter operation time ( p = 0.004), less blood loss ( p = 0.042), and less postoperative complication ( p = 0.048). Conclusions Sublobar resection performed for small simple pulmonary aspergilloma and selected complex pulmonary aspergilloma has a low recurrence rate and confers perioperative advantages compared with lobectomy.