The first paper in this series presented our experiences with 6301 cases of anesthesia for all types of thoracic surgery. This paper will present in greater detail observations on the 2186 patients undergoing pulmonary resection. In selecting these patients from the total number of cases, we wished to choose a group which was comparable on the basis of the operation performed, and in which we could compare some of the factors influencing postoperative morbidity. The group includes patients having segmental resections, lobectomy, and pneumonectomy, but not those for whom such a procedure had been proposed but found not possible at the time of operation. A third paper will discuss the incidence of death in this same selected group of patients.
The distribution of pulmonary resections during the 15 years of this study is presented in Table 1. More than half of these operations were performed during the last five