Perioperative statin medication impairs pulmonary outcome after abdomino-thoracic esophagectomy

Abstract Background Although surgery is the curative option of choice for patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer, morbidity, especially the rate of pulmonary complications, and consequently mortality of patients undergoing abdomino-thoracic esophagectomy remain unacceptably high. Causes for developing post-esophagectomy pulmonary complications are trauma to the lung and thoracic cavity as well as systemic inflammatory response. Statins are known to influence inflammatory pathways, but whether perioperative statin medication impacts on inflammatory response and pulmonary complication development after esophagectomy had not been investigated, yet. Methods Retrospective analysis and propensity score matching of patients, who either received perioperative statin medication [statin( +)] or not [statin( −)], with regard to respiratory impairment (PaO2/FiO2