13 Severe Emphysema Treated By Lung Volume Reduction Surgery

Background lung volume reduction surgery has been re-introduced for treating patients with severe diffuse emphysema.Objective To investigate criteria of screening surgical candidates and clinical effects of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) for severe emphysema .Methods 13 patients with severe emphysema underwent resection of the targeted overinflated , destructive and dysfunction pulmonary tissue by linear stapler, and by sternotomy ,bilateral or unilateral approach . 20%~30% of the volume of each lung was resected..Results After operation, dyspnea evidently alleviated or disappeared, the quality of life for many patients have been improved. Pulmonary funtion:FEV( increased by 42%, RV\ TLC decreased by 30% and 27.5% . PaO2 increased by 15mm Hg. There was significant difference above indexes between preoperation and postoperation( P<0.01).Conclusions LVRS offers safe and effective palliation for a relatively well defined subset of patients with advanced emphysema. But additional clinical investigation is required to determine whether LVRS should be a widely accepted therapy for severe emphysema.