Pneumectomy

Under pneumonectomy or pneumonectomy refers to the surgical removal of a lung, thus of the entire lung tissue of a page from the main bronchus (bronchus). The removal of a single lobe of the lung is called a lobectomy .

Indications for a pneumonectomy are a central bronchial carcinoma or a bronchial carcinoma, which consists of several foci, a pronounced pulmonary tuberculosis or the occurrence of numerous bronchiectasis . Before each pneumonectomy, it must be checked whether the remaining lung is functionally capable of supplying ( oxygenating ) the blood of the affected person with sufficient oxygen so that they can continue to live. A lung function test and a lung perfusion scintigraphy are used for this purpose. Immediately after the operation, a temporary pneumoserothorax occurs , which is then resorbed .

After the removal of a lung, the overstretching of the lung parenchyma of the preserved lung can lead to a "post-pneumonectomy syndrome" with stress dyspnea , which can be remedied by using a prosthetic volume expander in the area of ​​the previous lung. After a pneumonectomy, the remaining lung can grow and largely compensate for the loss of lung tissue, the more the younger the patient is. In a 33-year-old woman, an increase in volume with new formation of alveoli of the remaining lungs of 77% was observed over 15 years.

literature

1. ↑ James P. Butler, Stephen H. Loring, Samuel Patz, Akira Tsuda, Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy, Steven J. Mentzer: Evidence for adult lung growth in humans . New England Journal of Medicine 2012; 367: 244-247

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