Most people stay in the hospital for 5 to 7 days for open thoracotomy and 1 to 3 days after video-assisted thorascopic surgery. You may spend time in the intensive care unit (ICU) after either surgery.

During your hospital stay, you will:

• Be asked to sit on the side of the bed, and then walk, the same day you have surgery
• Have a tube coming out of the side of your chest to drain fluids
• Wear special stockings on your feet and legs to prevent blood clots
• Receive shots to prevent blood clots
• Receive pain medicine through an IV (a tube that goes into your veins) or by mouth with pills. You may receive your pain medicine through a special machine that gives you a dose of pain medicine when you push a button. This allows you to control how much pain medicine you get.
• Be asked to do a lot of deep breathing to help prevent pneumonia and infection and to inflate the lung that was operated on. Your chest tube will remain in place until your lung has fully inflated.

The outcome depends on the type of problem being treated, how much of the lung is removed, and how ill you are before surgery.