As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed, all things change. Certainly, the history of surgical treatment of patients with lung cancer is an example. There is both more and less. LESS For the consideration of “less” there is the consideration of the amount of lung the thoracic surgeon removes when operating Read More
Category: Lung Surgery
In 1895 William Macewen, a Scot, removed an entire lung from a patient with rampant infection. He was the first to successfully accomplish this operation, a pneumonectomy. Remarkably, he incorporated none of the technical actions that are and have been routinely and consistently used by thoracic surgeons for many years Read More
The last two posts reviewed the thoracic surgical thought that informs the decision-making process for a patient being evaluated for a lung cancer operation. If the cancer is potentially curable and pulmonary assessment shows the patient will have sufficient lung function after the operation it’s a go. But a third Read More
In my previous blog I reviewed the concerns a surgeon has about the impact of a lung cancer operation—which costs a patient some of their breathing capacity—on a patient’s quality of life and how that determines the amount of lung that the surgeon can remove; quality of life after surgery Read More
I thought it was time to revisit the topic of operations for lung cancer. The surgeon has options which differ in the amount of lung being removed. The surgeon’s goal in all cases is to cure the cancer but they are constrained by the patient’s ability to tolerate, both immediately Read More
Although all cancers of solid organs have subtypes, they all are identified with a single identifying name based on the organ in which they originate. Colon cancer and pancreatic cancer, for example. Lung cancer is different: from the outset, based on the appearance of cells under the microscope, it is Read More
There are multiple considerations inside his or her head when a thoracic surgeon operates on a patient with lung cancer. I want to focus on two of them: how will the surgeon perform the operation and what part—how much—of the lung will the surgeon remove? A surgeon can gain access Read More
Lung cancer is a killer. It ends the life of more Americans than any other cancer. Frustratingly for those of us surgeons who do or have treated afflicted patients, the likelihood of developing lung cancer can be significantly diminished. Actively smoking or being exposed passively to the exhaled smoke from Read More
Air: all around us. Inside each of us there is air in our lungs. So technically we have air inside our chest; but, as we breathe in and out, it’s contained within our lungs. When air accumulates in the chest but outside the lungs—into what is called the pleural space—bad Read More
Second Opinions Patients are frequently advised, or decide on their own, to seek a second opinion after a recommendation to undergo an operation. That seems reasonable but it can actually result in more uncertainty than existed prior to the second opinion. When the surgeon agrees with the first recommendation the Read More
