Lung Volume Reduction Surgery

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) is not a wide spread procedure because of concerns raised relating to safety, patient selection, effectiveness, choice of surgical technique and cost. The concern was based on the risk of performing a major thoracic surgery on patients with very poor lung function, which inherently imparts significant risk to individual patients while providing benefit to only a limited subgroup of patients with emphysema as was demonstrated by the NETT study. Endoscopic lung volume reduction with endobronchial valves is expanding in the treatment of end-stage emphysema patients which may improve the quality and length of life in patients with end-stage COPD without the need for surgery.