Background: Comorbidity has a great impact on lung cancer survival. Renal function status may affect treatment decisions and drug toxicity. The survival outcome in lung cancer patients with coexisting chronic kidney disease (CKD) has not been fully evaluated. We hypothesized that CKD is an independent risk factor for mortality in patients with lung cancer.Methods: A retrospective, propensity‐matched study of 434 patients diagnosed between June 2004 and May 2012 was conducted. CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/minute. Lung cancer and coexisting CKD patients were matched 1:1 to patients with lung cancer without CKD.Results: Age, gender, smoking status, histology, and lung cancer stage were not statistically significantly different between the CKD and non‐CKD groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated a median survival of 7.26 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.06–8.46) in the CKD group compared with 7.82 months (95% CI 6.33–9.30) in the non‐CKD group (P = 0.41). Lung cancer stage‐specific survival is not affected by CKD. Although lung cancer patients with CKD presented with an increased risk of death of 6%, this result was not statistically significant (hazard ratio 1.06, 95% CI 0.93–1.22; P = 0.41).Conclusion: According to our limited experience, CKD is not an independent risk factor for survival in lung cancer patients. Clinicians should not be discouraged to treat lung cancer patients with CKD.

Background and Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate whether Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infections of arteriovenous grafts (AVGs) recur more frequently than other bacterial infections following treatment with revision. Materials and Methods: Operative procedures, including total excision, subtotal excision, and revision, were performed on 60 patients to treat 65 AVG infections. Final outcomes were classified as no infection recurrence, infection recurrence, and death without prior recurrence. In the competing risk setting, the cumulative incidence was estimated using the cumulative incidence function and Gray’s test, and the associations between outcomes and different variables were estimated using a subdistribution hazard (SDH) model. Results: Comparing AVG infections with and without recurrence, PA infection was not associated with a higher risk of infection recurrence (p = 0.13); however, the first operative procedure type was associated with infection recurrence (p = 0.04). AVGs with PA infection were associated with a higher total number of surgical interventions (p < 0.05) than AVGs without PA infection. Regarding the cumulative incidences of outcomes, for AVGs treated with subtotal excision or revision, the cumulative incidence of recurrent infection was 3.3-fold higher for those with PA infection than without one year after the first surgery. However, when AVGs were treated with revision alone, the cumulative incidence was 4.1-fold. After excluding AVGs treated with total excision, the SDH model was applied, obtaining a hazard ratio for infection recurrence of 16.05 (p = 0.02) for AVGs with PA infection compared with AVGs without PA infection. No other variables were significantly associated with infection recurrence. Conclusions: For subtotal resection and revision, AVGs infected with PA had a higher recurrence rate than those infected with other species. However, revision surgery may aggravate the recurrence rate.

Purpose: Implantable port catheter is a reliable vascular access for chemotherapy infusion in cancer patients. However, patients with hematology malignancies usually present with a myriad of blood cell abnormalities that put them at risk of infection and mechanical problems requiring catheter removal. This study aims to determine the risk factors associated with unplanned (catheter removal other than completion of treatment plan) early (within 90 days of catheter implantation) implantable port catheter removal. Patients and Methods: A retrospective, propensity score-matched study of 386 patients with hematology malignancies who received implantable venous access ports between January 2015 and December 2022. We conducted a univariate analysis to select the variables for propensity score matching. Patients with unplanned early implantable port catheter removal (early group) were matched 1:1 to patients without unplanned early removal (non-early group). Results: Univariate analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference between early and non-early groups for age (p = 0.048), hemoglobin level (p = 0.028), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.025), and PG-SGA (p < 0.001). Thrombocytopenia was the only independent risk factor with a statistically significant difference in Cox proportional hazard analysis, HR 2.823, 95 CI 1.050– 7.589, p = 0.040. The median catheter survival for patients with thrombocytopenia was 61 days (95% CI 28.58– 93.42) compared to 150 days (95% CI 9.81– 290.19) for patients without thrombocytopenia, p = 0.015. Patient survival is not affected by early catheter removal. The median survival for patients in the early group was 28.28 months (95% CI 27.43– 29.15) compared to 32.39 months (95% CI 24.11– 40.68), for the non-early group, p = 0.709. Conclusion: Hematology malignancy patients with thrombocytopenia are at high risk for unplanned early port catheter removal without survival difference.

Background: The survival outcomes of lung cancer patients with coexisting chronic kidney disease (CKD) reported in the literature have been conflicting. We evaluate whether the survival of lung cancer patients with and without CKD differ significantly using two different formulas.Methods: A retrospective, multicenter, propensity‐matched study of lung cancer patients with and without CKD was conducted. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/minute. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to determine survival differences between CKD and non‐CKD patients using the Cockcroft–Gault formula (CKD–CG) compared to the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration Formula (CKD‐EPI).Results: Baseline clinical characteristics did not differ statistically significantly between the groups. The CKD‐CG formula demonstrated median survival of 10.61 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 9.33–11.89) for the non‐CKD group compared to 10.58 months (95% CI 9.03–12.13) for the CKD group (P = 0.76). The CKD‐EPI formula demonstrated median survival of 9.10 months (95% CI 8.01–10.20) for the non‐CKD group compared to 7.59 months (95% CI 6.50–8.68) for the CKD group (P = 0.19). Cox regression analysis using both models revealed that CKD is not an independent risk factor for mortality in lung cancer patients. Although the CKD‐EPI formula revealed an increased risk of mortality and the CKD‐CG formula revealed decreased survival, these results were not statistically significant.Conclusion: Lung cancer survival did not differ significantly between CKD and non‐CKD patients using either formula.

Background: Diffuse coronary lesions adversely influence the outcomes of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). This study aimed to investigate the influence of diffuse left anterior descending artery (LAD) lesions on the outcomes of CABG. Methods: The data of 123 patients, who received elective isolated CABG with the left internal mammary artery bypassed to the LAD from January 2011 to June 2017, were collected. According to their lesions (≥50% diameter stenoses) ≤2cm or >2cm in the middle and distal segment of LAD, the patients were classified into a No Diffuse Lesion (NDL) group (69 patients) and a Diffuse Lesion (DL) group (54 patients). The rates of in-hospital mortality, 5-year all-cause mortality, and major cardiac events (MCEs) (i.e. myocardial infarction, angina, acute heart failure, and atrial fibrillation) were analyzed. Results: According to the univariate analyses, the NDL group had fewer diffuse left circumflex artery (LCX) lesions (P = .001) and higher ventricular fibrillation (Vf) after aortic de-clamping (P = .03) than the DL group. According to the multivariate analyses, the in-hospital and 5-year all-cause mortality rates of the two groups did not significantly differ (P = .80 and P = .59). Otherwise, the DL group had a trend toward more MCEs (hazard ratio = 2.07, P = .061), but the difference clearly was insignificant after adjusting for diffuse LCX lesions and Vf after aortic de-clamping (P = .104). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that diffuse LAD lesions did not influence the risks of in-hospital mortality, 5-year all-cause mortality, or MCEs after CABG.