Postoperative air leak is one of the most common complications after pulmonary resection and contributes to postoperative pain, complications, and increased hospital length of stay. Several risk factors, including both…
Chronic obstructive pulmonary usually is subcategorized into 2 groups: chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The main cause of chronic bronchitis and emphysema is smoking; however, alpha1-antitrypsin also has been seen to…
Lung volume reduction surgery can significantly improve quality of life for properly selected patients who are symptomatic despite maximal medical management for emphysema. This requires a well-constructed multidisciplinary team (including…
As palliative treatment, lung volume reduction surgery can be offered to a selected subset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Careful adherence to established inclusion and exclusion criteria is critical…
Publication of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) in 2003 established lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) as a viable treatment of select patients with moderate to severe emphysema, and the…
The National Emphysema Treatment Trial compared medical treatment of severe pulmonary emphysema with lung-volume-reduction surgery in a multiinstitutional randomized prospective fashion. Two decades later, this trial remains one of the…
Inhaled therapy remains the cornerstone of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pharmacologic care, but some systemic treatments can be of help when the burden of the disease remains high. Azithromycin, phosphodiesterase-4…
Identifying the exact cause for persistent and recurrent neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (NTOS) is challenging even with high-resolution imaging of the thoracic outlet. Improvement can be achieved with redo first…
Minimally invasive surgical approaches to the treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) will become increasingly common as more surgeons gain experience in thoracoscopic and robotic technique. Robotic surgery may be…
Thoracic outlet syndrome is a condition of compression involving the brachial plexus and subclavian vessels. Although there are multiple surgical approaches to address thoracic outlet decompression, supraclavicular first rib resection…
