Data items
Data extraction was executed by two authors on their own, with divergence resolved by consensus. We included the relevant data for all selected articles, which were extracted into Microsoft Excel to analyze. The following data will be extracted:
The characteristics of included literature: country, study year, sample size, standard baseline patient characteristic (sex, age).
Outcomes: age at surgery, length of stay, operative time, chest tube duration, length of ventilation, number of deaths, major complications.