Ann Thorac Surg 2007;83:1145
© 2007 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Original Articles: General Thoracic
Invited commentary
John D. Miller, MD, FRCSC
Division of Thoracic Surgery, St. Josephs Hospital, 50 Charlton Ave E, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 4A6
(Email: jmiller@mcmaster.ca).
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Kreider and colleagues [1] have reported their experience with video-assisted thoracotomy (VAT) lung biopsies in the diagnosis of interstitial lung disease. Their report emphasizes that surgical lung biopsy is not without risk. They stress that their clinically significant mortality rate of 4.4% is related to several factors, most, if not all of which reflect the severity of the patients disease. Not surprisingly the authors identify supplemental oxygen need and pulmonary hypertension as being the significant risk factors. Other authors have included poor pulmonary functional studies of vital capacity and advancing age as also being of significance. As the severity of disease advances, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Copyright © 2007 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.