ATS
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Personal Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Permission Requests
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Related Collections
Right arrowRelated Article

Ann Thorac Surg 2000;70:954
© 2000 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Discussion

Discussion

Discussion

DR MARK D. IANNETTONI (Ann Arbor, MI): I’d like to thank Dr Pompeo for the opportunity to discuss this paper and for sending it to us early. He’s added to the current literature suggesting that if patients are selected properly for lung volume reduction, they can achieve better relief from dyspnea and improved short-term benefit from surgery than from medical therapy.

In regard to the paper itself, the significant improvement that was seen with surgery obviously was better than that seen with medical therapy alone; however, there was a significant improvement with medical therapy as well.

I do have several questions for the authors with regard to the conclusions of their study and the study design. The first is related to patient selection. All of the current literature with respect to lung volume reduction surgery involves patients with nonbullous emphysema, either with or without a gradient. However, in their paper Dr Pompeo and colleagues state that patients with bullous emphysema were included in their study, and this is still one of the true exclusion criteria for lung volume reduction. My question is, what is your definition of bullous emphysema? Additionally, what percentage of your patients had bullous emphysema as their sole disease, and what percentage of these patients had unilateral disease?

The study also had an unusually large number of patients with unilateral disease, 13 of 30. Although . . . [Full Text of this Article]


Related Article

Reduction pneumoplasty versus respiratory rehabilitation in severe emphysema: a randomized study
Eugenio Pompeo, Mario Marino, Italo Nofroni, Giuseppe Matteucci, and Tommaso Claudio Mineo
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2000 70: 948-953. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]





HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
ANN THORAC SURG ASIAN CARDIOVASC THORAC ANN EUR J CARDIOTHORAC SURG
J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG ICVTS ALL CTSNet JOURNALS
Copyright © 2000 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.