A multicenter trial of an intrabronchial valve for treatment of severe emphysema.

OBJECTIVES: Minimally invasive endoscopic treatment of emphysema could provide palliation with less risk than lung volume reduction surgery and offer therapy to patients currently not considered for lung volume reduction surgery. The Intrabronchial Valve is used to block bronchial airflow in the most emphysematous areas of lung. METHODS: Patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heterogeneous upper lobe-predominant emphysema were eligible. Patients underwent flexible bronchoscopic placement of valves into segmental or subsegmental airways in both upper lobes. Outcomes assessed over a minimum of 6 months of follow-up included the safety, feasibility, tolerance, and success of valve placement; health-related quality of life; exercise capacity; pulmonary function; and gas exchange. RESULTS: Five centers treated 30 patients. Patient follow-up ranged from 1 to 12 months. A mean of 6.1 valves were placed per patient. Valves were positioned by means of flexible bronchoscopy in 99% of desired airways, and the procedure duration ranged from 15 to 125 minutes (mean, 65 minutes). Hospital discharge occurred within 2 days in 27 of 30 patients. There were no deaths or episodes of valve migration, tissue erosion, or significant bleeding. Eighty-three percent of patients had no adverse events judged probably or definitely related to the device. Patients experienced significant improvement in health-related quality of life, although the physiologic and exercise outcomes did not show statistically significant improvements. CONCLUSIONS: These first multicenter results with the Intrabronchial Valve demonstrate significant improvements in health-related quality of life and acceptable safety, ease of use, and procedural complication rates. The valve might be a safer and less-invasive alternative to surgical therapy for patients with severe emphysema.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy: experience with 1,100 cases.

BACKGROUND: Although many video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomies have been performed over the 12 years since the first VATS lobectomy, controversies about the procedure remain regarding the safety and associated morbidity and mortality of that procedure. This series is reviewed to assess these issues. METHODS: Between 1992 and 2004, we performed 1,100 VATS lobectomies in 595 women (54.1%) and 505 men (45.9%), with a mean age of 71.2 years. Diagnoses were as follows: benign disease (53), pulmonary metastases (27), lymphoma (5), and lung cancer (1,015). Of the primary lung cancers, 641 (63.1%) were adenocarcinoma. With visualization on a monitor, anatomic hilar dissection and lymph node sampling or dissection were performed, primarily through a 5-cm incision without spreading the ribs. RESULTS: There were 9 deaths (0.8%), and none was intraoperative or due to bleeding; 932 patients had no postoperative complications (84.7%). Blood transfusion was required in 45 of 1,100 patients (4.1%). Length of stay was median 3 days (mean, 4.78). One hundred eighty patients (20%) were discharged on postoperative day 1 or 2. Conversion to a thoracotomy occurred in 28 patients (2.5%). Recurrence developed in the incisions in 5 patients (0.57%). In 2003, 89% of 224 lobectomies were performed with VATS. CONCLUSIONS: VATS lobectomy with anatomic dissection can be performed with low morbidity and mortality rates. The risk of intraoperative bleeding or recurrence in an incision seems minimal.

New approaches to the minimally invasive treatment of lung cancer.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The momentum for minimally invasive thoracic surgery has been growing. Thousands of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomies have been performed since the first video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy was performed in 1992, but currently most lobectomies are still performed via a thoracotomy. Although most lobectomies could be performed with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, less than 5% are currently performed that way. Compared with a thoracotomy, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery offers patients a shorter length of stay, less pain, and a quicker recovery, without compromising the adequacy of the operation. The purpose of this review is to identify the current uses for minimally invasive procedures in thoracic surgery and to present the current data regarding these procedures. RECENT FINDINGS: Complete anatomic resections and node dissections are routinely being performed at several centers internationally. The median length of stay after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy is 3 days, and 84.7% of patients had no complications. Studies comparing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and thoracotomy suggest that minimally invasive surgery causes less pain, has a smaller impact on postoperative pulmonary function, and provides a quicker return to regular activity, with at least comparable survival for cancer patients. SUMMARY: Current data suggest that, compared with a thoracotomy, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery has advantages for anatomic pulmonary resections.

Swyer-James (MacLeod) syndrome with placental transmogrification of the lung: a case report and review of the literature.

Swyer-James (MacLeod) syndrome is an acquired form of unilateral hyperlucency of the lung and is characterized by the development of severe emphysema, bronchiectasis, and/or bronchiolitis obliterans. It may develop as a complication of repeated episodes of pulmonary infection resulting in bronchiolitis obliterans and obstruction of small airways. Most patients with Swyer-James (MacLeod) syndrome can be managed clinically, and the pathologic features of the syndrome have been described in only a few reports. Placental transmogrification of the lung is a rare histopathologic finding that has been described in patients with severe emphysema associated with cigarette smoking, congenital bullous emphysema, and fibrochondromatous hamartomas of the lung and is characterized by the development of peculiar structures in the pulmonary parenchyma that resemble placental villi. To our knowledge, placental transmogrification of the lung has not been previously described in patients with Swyer-James (MacLeod) syndrome. We encountered a 32-year-old man with a history of childhood asthma who presented with progressively severe exertional dyspnea and had unilateral right lung hyperlucency. The patient underwent a right pneumonectomy. Examination of the lung revealed severe mixed centriacinar-panacinar emphysema in all lobes, bullous emphysema in the upper lobe, bronchiectases, mild interstitial pneumonia with fibrosis, and placental transmogrification of the pulmonary parenchyma of all 3 lobes. Here, we review the pathology of Swyer-James (MacLeod) syndrome and the possible pathogenesis of villous-like changes in the lung tissues.

VATS anatomic pulmonary resection in octogenarians.

Although modern techniques in anesthesia and surgery have reduced morbidity and mortality for pulmonary resection, some physicians still consider advanced age a contraindication to resection of lung cancer. We examined our experience with VATS lobectomy in octogenarians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over 12 years (1992-2004). There were 159 patients. Mean age was 83 years (range, 80-94 years) consisting of 61 males (38%) and 96 females (62%). Operations included 153 lobectomies (96%), 3 bilobectomies (2%), and 3 pneumonectomies (2%). Two operations were converted to thoracotomy (1%), one due to bleeding, and one due to poor visualization. Median hospital stay was 4.00 +/- 6.39 days. One hundred thirty-one patients (82%) had no complications. The most common complication was arrhythmias occurring in 8/159 (5%) patients. There were three perioperative deaths (1.8%). Pathology revealed 104 adenocarcinomas (65%), 25 squamous cell carcinomas (16%), 5 adeno-squamous carcinomas (3%), 7 bronchoalveolar carcinomas (4%), 7 large cell carcinomas (4%), 4 carcinoid tumors (3%), 4 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (3%), 1 mucoepidermoid carcinoma (< 1%), 1 lymphoma (< 1%), and 1 pulmonary metastasis (< 1%). Median follow-up was 29 months. The results of this series show that age alone is not a contraindication to the surgical treatment of lung cancer.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery upper lobe trisegmentectomy for early-stage left apical lung cancer.

Resection of the left upper lobe with preservation of the lingula is the anatomic equivalent of a right upper lobectomy with preservation of the right middle lobe. Therefore, our standard operation for a small apical tumor in the left upper lobe has been an apical trisegmentectomy. The purpose of this article is to review our experience with the procedure by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) and to describe the operative technique for a VATS apical trisegmentectomy. Eleven patients underwent the procedure with no deaths, low morbidity, and good initial disease-free survival. A VATS apical trisegmentectomy seems to be a feasible and reasonable treatment for small stage I lung cancers at the apex of the left upper lobe.

Frozen section diagnoses of small pulmonary nodules: accuracy and clinical implications.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary nodules are frequently first diagnosed by frozen section, immediately followed by lobectomy or other procedures. The frozen section diagnosis of pulmonary nodules can be difficult, as inflammatory and fibrotic lesions can be confused for malignancy, creating intraoperative dilemmas for pathologists and thoracic surgeons. METHODS: We reviewed our experience at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with the frozen section diagnoses of 183 consecutive pulmonary nodules smaller than 1.5 cm in diameter and calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of this diagnostic procedure. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy four nodules were correctly classified by frozen section as neoplastic or nonneoplastic, six lesions were diagnosed equivocally, and two neoplasms were missed owing to sampling errors. The equivocal frozen section diagnoses included two bronchioloalveolar carcinomas (BAC) interpreted as "atypical hyperplasia, favor BAC," two BAC diagnosed as "alveolar hyperplasia," and two carcinoid tumors labeled as "atypical carcinoma" and "spindle cell lesion, carcinoid versus sclerosing hemangioma," respectively. The sensitivities for a diagnosis of neoplasia were 86.9% and 94.1% for nodules smaller than 1.1 cm in diameter and measuring 1.1 to 1.5 cm, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of frozen sections was significantly better in nodules larger than 1.0 cm in diameter (p = 0.05). There were no false-positive diagnoses of malignancy, resulting in 100% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative consultation with frozen section is a sensitive and specific procedure for the diagnosis of malignancy from small pulmonary nodules. The distinction between BAC and atypical adenomatous hyperplasia, and of small peripheral carcinoid tumors from other lesions, can be difficult by frozen section. Thoracic surgeons need to become aware of these problems and develop appropriate therapeutic strategies.

Symptomatic Bochdalek hernia in an octogenarian.

We present a case of an 88-year-old man who presented with chest pain and shortness of breath. Chest radiography suggested the presence of a ruptured diaphragm, and on exploration a left Bochdalek defect with herniation of stomach and small bowel into the left pleural cavity was found. This was repaired and the patient eventually was discharged to a nursing facility. We believe this represents the oldest patient presentation of a symptomatic Bochdalek hernia.