Safety of perioperative low dose aspirin therapy in major lung resection

Aspirin is widely used for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Gu et al. estimated the prevalence of preventive aspirin use in the US adult population from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012, and about one-third of the US adults aged more than 40 years used aspirin for preventive purposes (1). Some population-based studies reported that among patients diagnosed with lung cancer, 15.3% in Korea and 26% in Sweden were aspirin users (2,3). Accordingly, thoracic surgeons are frequently confronted with patients taking aspirin and need to decide whether to continue or discontinue aspirin in the perioperative period.