Effects of perioperative oral care on prevention of postoperative pneumonia after lung resection: Multicenter retrospective study with propensity score matching analysis

Postoperative pneumonia can be a fatal complication that may occur after lung resection in cancer patients. Some reports have shown that the incidence of postoperative pneumonia is decreased after esophageal surgery by perioperative oral care; however, there exist no data to suggest that a lack of perioperative oral care can be a risk factor for postoperative pneumonia after lung resection. To investigate the association between the preventive effect of oral care and postoperative pneumonia, we conducted a multicenter, retrospective study of lung cancer patients who underwent lung resection. Between January 2014 and December 2016, a total of 721 patients underwent lung resections at 1 of the 6 hospitals included in our study. Among 721 patients, 280 (38.8%) received perioperative oral care, and the remaining 441 (61.2%) did not receive any such care. Propensity score matching was performed to minimize selection biases associated with the comparison of retrospective data between the oral care and control groups. Of the 721 patients, 54 (7.5%) experienced postoperative pneumonia involving 13 of the 280 patients (4.6%) in the oral care group and 41 of the 441 patients (9.3%) in the control group (P = .02). On propensity score analysis, a significant difference was also found between oral care intervention and incidence of postoperative pneumonia (P = .002). Our results suggest that perioperative oral care is an effective method to decrease the occurrence of postoperative pneumonia in patients who have undergone lung resection.