Table 1. Patient characteristics.

Variables	PLBI group (n=32) (%)	IV PCA group (n=36) (%)	P value
Age (years)	63.2±11.1	59.2±11.3	0.147
Sex (male/female)	15/17	17/19	0.977
BMI	24.5±3.3	23.6±2.7	0.239
Smoking (never/ever)	16/16	19/17	0.952
Disease entity			0.721
Primary NSCLC	26	29
Pulmonary metastasis	2	2
Benign disease	4	5
Laterality			0.438
Right	13 (40.6)	18 (50.0)
Left	19 (59.4)	18 (50.0)
Port number			0.002
3	17	32
4	15	4
Operation time (min)	135.1±42.8	149.7±46.8	0.185
Type of VATS			0.616
Segmentectomy	1	3
Lobectomy	31	33
Chest tube indwelling time (days)	2.6±1.2	2.7±1.2	0.825
Postoperative hospital stay	3.7±1.2	3.9±1.2	0.386

Values are mean ± SD or number of patients. PLBI, pre-emptive local bupivacaine injection; IV PCA, intravenous patient controlled analgesia; BMI, body mass index; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer; VATS, video-assisted thoracic surgery.