Boston - American Association for Thoracic Surgery

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THORACIC SURGERYL8. Age Is an Independent Risk Factor for Aspiration FollowingThoracotomy for Pulmonary ResectionWilliam B. Keeling 1 , Jonathan M. Hernandez 2 , Vicki Lewis 3 , Melissa Czapla 3 ,Weiwei Zhu 3 , Joseph Garrett 2 , Eric Sommers 21. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 2. University of South Florida,Tampa, FL, USA; 3. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USASUNDAYAfternoonOBJECTIVE: Aspiration is an increasingly recognized complication followingthoracotomy for pulmonary resection, but mechanisms of postoperative aspirationare poorly characterized. This study sought to evaluate risk factors to better definepost-thoracotomy aspiration.METHODS: 321 consecutive patients underwent clinical bedside swallowing evaluationsfollowing thoracotomy for pulmonary resection on postoperative day one.Videofluoroscopic swallowing studies (VFSS) were independently reviewed by twospeech pathologists and were assigned Aspiration-Penetration (AS-PEN) scores ofeither 1 (normal) or > 1 (abnormal). Operative, demographic and outcomes datawere abstracted for each patient and multivariate regression analysis was performed.RESULTS: 73 (22.7%) patients failed bedside evaluation and proceeded toundergo VFSS. Forty-four (60.3%) patients had an abnormal VFSS with a mean AS-PEN score of 3.89 ± .29. Univariate analysis of data comparing patients with normalversus abnormal AS-PEN scores are displayed in Table 1. Multivariate analysisshowed that older age (69.2 versus 53.0) (p = .002), prior or current head and neckcancer (p < .0021) premature spillage (p = .0006), and vallecular residuals (p