Four cases of completion lobectomy for locally relapsed lung cancer after segmentectomy

BACKGROUND: Although completion lobectomy is the treatment of choice for local recurrence of non-small cell lung cancer after segmentectomy, few cases have been reported. We report four patients who underwent completion lobectomies for staple line recurrence after segmentectomy for stage I non-small cell lung cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: Three women aged 65, 82, and 81 years underwent completion lower lobectomy after superior segmentectomy of the same lobe for local recurrence of stage I non-small cell lung cancer. A 67-year-old man, who had a tumor recurrence on the staple line after apical segmentectomy with superior mediastinal nodal dissection for stage I non-small cell lung cancer, underwent completion right upper lobectomy. These four patients underwent segmentectomy because of comorbidities or advanced age. Local recurrence was confirmed by computed tomography-guided needle biopsy. The interval between the two operations was 37, 39, 41, and 16 months, respectively. Although minimal hilar adhesion was seen for the three completion lower lobectomies, tight adhesions after apical segmentectomy made completion right upper lobectomy quite difficult to dissect, which led to injury of the superior pulmonary vein. No recurrence was recorded after completion lobectomies for 62, 70, 67, and 72 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although completion lobectomy is one of the most difficult modes of resection, among several completion lobectomies, completion lower lobectomy after superior segmentectomy without superior mediastinal nodal dissection was relatively easy to perform because of fewer hilar adhesions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12957-021-02165-x.