Capitonnage surgery is effective in all types of pulmonary hydatid cysts

Background: Hydatid cyst still has worldwide distribution with many cases discovered yearly in endemic areas. It has a predilection to involve the liver and the lung. Capitonnage has been practiced long time to avoid postoperative complications mainly air leak in addition to empyema formation. It may be still controversy concerning the efficiency of capitonnage especially for complicated hydatid cyst which led us to evaluate. Aim of the study: To assess the efficacy of capitonnage surgery in minimizing the postoperative complications and hospital stay in complicated and non complicated pulmonary hydatid cysts. Patients and Methods: A prospective study has been done at the department of thoracic surgery in AlJumhory teaching hospital at right side of Mosul, Department of pediatric surgery in Al-Khansaa teaching hospital and in Al-Rabee private hospital at left side of Mosul / Iraq between February 2017 and December 2019. Totally 118 patients with hydatid cyst of lung, including all ages and on different types of complicated and non-complicated cysts were included for this study. Co-morbid diseases like acute myocardial ischemia and uncontrolled diabetes mellitus were excluded from our study. Patients were evaluated in responce to the gender, age, clinical presentation, cyst condition (size, site and where ruptured or not) and postoperative hospital stay. Enucleation of the HC and capitonnage were carried out for all patients. The patient followed for three months at monthly interval, then each year with the mean follow up of 22 months. Results: One hundred eighteen patients with median age of 32 years were operated using capitonnage method. In this study 49 (41.5%) of the patients found to have intact cyst and the remaining 69 (58.5%) had ruptured cyst. We recorded the early postoperative complications which include air leak in 10 cases, Atelectasis 8, pneumothorax 3, wound infection 3 and Hemoptysis in 2 cases. Conclusion: Capitonnage can decrease the incidence of air leak and shorten hospital stay in complicated and non-complicated lung hydatid cysts.