Cardiothoracic Surgery

TSOS: preoperative score identifies predictors of severe 30-day morbidity after TORS for OPSCC

In 1,592 TORS patients with OPSCC, 15.7% experienced severe postoperative events within 30 days. Independent preoperative predictors included advanced T stage, BMI <22, smoking, preoperative dysphagia, and hyperlipidemia. A point-based TSOS threshold of ≥24 showed the best discrimination for the composite severe outcome. This is a derivation cohort from TriNetX; external validation is required before clinical deployment. 1

Machine learning predicts in-hospital mortality for post-cardiotomy ECMO with moderate accuracy

Using 5,982 ELSO registry patients, six ML algorithms predicted in-hospital mortality during ECMO support. The boosting model achieved the highest discrimination (AUC = 0.759); other models performed worse. Key predictors included age, on-support lactate, arterial pH, and BMI, but on-support variables reflect trajectory. Authors advise external validation and view models as tools for dynamic risk assessment during ECMO. 2

Older adults show delayed cough recovery after VATS lung cancer resection compared with dyspnea

In 292 patients aged 60–80 undergoing VATS, dyspnea largely normalized by 6 months (95.2% mMRC 0–1). Cough remained below preoperative LCQ-MC scores at 6 months and had median recovery time 75 days. VATS lobectomy was associated with slower cough recovery versus sublobectomy (adjusted HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.34–0.66). Use these data to set expectations and plan symptom follow-up in older surgical patients. 3