Perioperative Nursing Care of a School-Age Child With Lung Adenocarcinoma Based on the Family-Centered Empowerment Model and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery: A Case Report.

Primary lung adenocarcinoma is extremely rare in children, and perioperative care requires simultaneous attention to physiological recovery, family adaptation, and restoration of age-appropriate social functioning. This case report describes a 7-year-old boy with invasive pulmonary adenocarcinoma of the left lower lobe, who underwent single-port three-dimensional reconstruction-guided video-assisted thoracoscopic lung wedge resection, managed with a nurse-led perioperative pathway integrating the Family-Centered Empowerment Model (FCEM) and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) principles. This multidisciplinary pathway incorporated multidimensional assessment, family-partnered education, multimodal analgesia, respiratory rehabilitation, progressive mobilization, discharge preparation, and structured school reintegration planning. The patient was discharged uneventfully on postoperative day four with no perioperative complications. Longitudinal follow-up from 2021 through the most recent assessment in 2026 has confirmed no evidence of recurrence, preserved pulmonary function, successful school reintegration, reduced parental anxiety and depression, alleviated caregiver burden, and high discharge readiness. The core components of this pathway have been applied to three additional school-age thoracic tumor patients. A prospective cohort study is currently underway to further evaluate this approach. This case illustrates the operational feasibility of integrating FCEM within an ERAS-aligned perioperative nursing pathway for rare thoracic malignancies, and serves as a practice-derived case example that does not provide definitive evidence of clinical effectiveness.