ABSTRACT

The term Lung Volume Reduction Surgery is a surgical procedure meant to provide symptomatic relief to the patients with advanced emphysema. Pioneered back in the 1950's, this operation was soon abandoned due to the high perioperative mortality rate and authorities at the time thought that the concept was ill-conceived. With the refinement of anesthesiological techniques and experience derived from lung transplantation, the idea of a volumetric reduction of the lung for the treatment of advanced stage emphysema was reintroduced. Nowadays, as many as 2 million people in the United States suffer from emphysema, a disease that alters profoundly the quality of life of these patients.