Introduction:

Thoracic surgery represents one of the most frequent causes of admission to the intensive care unit.

Objective:

To describe the variables age, sex, preoperative diagnosis, surgical technique used, analgesia, complications and evolution of patients undergoing thoracic surgery in an intensive care unit.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study of 42 thoracic surgery patients admitted to an intensive care unit was conducted. The variables age, sex, diagnosis, surgical technique used, analgesia, complications and evolution were studied, with which a frequency analysis was performed.

Results:

The predominant age group was older than 60 years (42.9 %). The representative sex was male (78.5 %). The most frequent diagnosis for thoracic surgery was lung cancer (47.6 %). The most used technique was lobectomy (28.6 %). Dipyrone was the most used analgesia (35.7 %). Most of the patients did not present complications (83.3 %). Patients discharged alive prevailed (97.6 %) over deceased patients (2.4 %).

Conclusions:

Lung cancer represented the most frequent cause of thoracic surgery in both sexes. Consequently, thoracotomy with lobectomy was the most used technique. This type of intervention always implies functional alterations that can be inapparent and controllable; Postoperative management in the intensive care unit of these patients will largely determine their evolution.

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