Of the 41 patients, 26 (63%) underwent OLB in an operating room and 15 (37%) received bedside OLB in an ICU. Videoassisted thoracotomy was performed in eight patients, and the remaining patients underwent limited anterior thoracotomy. No intra-operative complication occurred, and eight patients (20%) had postoperative complications (less than seven days after the operation). Two patients developed transient hypotension after OLB and regained normal status after fluid resuscitation and vasopressor treatment for 12 hours. Two patients had pneumothorax diagnosed by chest X-ray and required a chest tube with low-pressure suction (10 cmH 2 O) drainage for 24 hours after OLB. Two patients had subcutaneous emphysema localized in the chest area after OLB, which resolved spontaneously in two days. Additionally, two patients had bronchopleural fistula with persistent air leaking from the operative chest tube for at least one day and did not need further surgery. Although six of these eight patients (two with transient hypotension, one with pneumothorax, one with subcutaneous emphysema and two with bronchopleural fistula) died, no surgical complication resulted directly in death. The incidence of postoperative complication was 15% (4/26) and 27% (4/15) for patients undergoing OLB in an operating room or at the bedside in an ICU, respectively. Complication rates were not significantly different between these two groups (p = 0.3799).