AIM: To observe the effect of rehabilitation exercises on the recovery of lung function in postoperative patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Fifty-three male patients with lung cancer, who were operated in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050011, Hebei Province, China between January and October 2004, were randomly divided into experimental group (n = 28) and control group (n = 25). All the patients received routine treatment and care, besides those in the experimental group did some suitable exercises and were given corresponding instruction, they advanced step-by-step rehabilitation exercises according to the postoperative time and reinforced exercises strength gradually. The indexes of lung function including vital capacity, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in first second of each subject were recorded preoperation and 1, 3 and 6 months postoperation respectively, and they were statistically analyzed with completely random design t test, paired design t test and analysis of variance for repeated data. RESULTS: The indexes of all the patients in both groups were involved in the analysis of results. (1) There were insignificant differences in the related indexes of lung function of vital capacity, forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in first second between the experimental group and control group preoperation according to the standard of a = 0.05, indicating that the three indexes were comparable between the two groups. According to the standard of a = 0.05 in the experimental group, the indexes were insignificantly difference after 1-month suitable rehabilitation exercises postoperation, and there were differences at 3 and 6 months postoperation; the indexes were all between in the experimental group than in the control group. (2) According to the standard of a = 0.01, the analysis of variance for repeated data showed that there were significant differences in the related indexes of lung function of vital capacity, forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in first second at 1, 3 and 6 months postoperation in the experimental group (F = 34.995, 309.153, 67.094, p = 0.000, 0.000, 0.000). (3) According to the standard of a = 0.02, the results of paired t test showed that there were insignificant differences in the related indexes of lung function of vital capacity, forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in first second in the experimental group preoperation and 6 months postoperation (t = 1.1660, 0.7086, 0.9675, p = 0.2538, 0.4846, 0.3419). (4) According to the standard of a = 0.001, the results of paired t test showed that there were significant differences in the related indexes of lung function of vital capacity, forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in first second in the control group preoperation and 6 months postoperation (t = 13.4851, 11.1444, 5.5677, p = 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000), and the average levels of all the indexes postoperation were lower than those preoperation. CONCLUSION: Rehabilitation exercises have better curative effect on the recovery of lung function in postoperative patients with lung cancer, can ameliorate lung function, effectively shorten the postoperative recovery phase of the patients with lung cancer, and improve their postoperative quality of life. The longer the rehabilitation exercises are kept for, the more obvious the effect in clinical monitoring.

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