Background: Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) has shown early promise as a palliative therapy in severe emphysema. A number of patients, however, are not candidates for a bilateral operation, or exhibit a predominantly unilateral disease distribution.
Methods: Over 20 months, we performed LVRS in 92 patients selected on the basis of severe hyperinflation with air trapping, diaphragmatic dysfunction, and disease heterogeneity. Twenty-eight patients underwent unilateral LVRS on the basis of asymmetric disease distribution, prior thoracic operation, or concomitant tumor resection.
Results: Unilateral LVRS resulted in comparable improvements in exercise capacity and dyspnea as the bilateral procedure, with a similar perioperative mortality and actuarial survival to 24 months. Improvements in spirometric indices of pulmonary function, however, were less in patients undergoing unilateral than bilateral LVRS.
Conclusions: In properly selected patients, unilateral LVRS provides functional and subjective benefits of comparable magnitude to those associated with a bilateral operation. Unilateral LVRS is therefore an option in the therapy of end-stage emphysema in patients with asymmetric disease distribution, a prior thoracic operation, or contraindications to sternotomy, and may have a role as a bridge to transplantation in selected cases.