TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Surgical Management of Emphysema A1 - Little, Alex G. A2 - Yuh, David D. A2 - Vricella, Luca A. A2 - Yang, Stephen C. A2 - Doty, John R. Y1 - 2014 N1 - T2 - Johns Hopkins Textbook of Cardiothoracic Surgery AB - EpidemiologyIt is estimated that two to three million patients suffer from emphysema.PathophysiologyExcept for rare cases caused by enzyme deficiency, smoking is the cause of diffuse emphysema. The smoke destroys lung tissue in an irreversible fashion leading to bullous formation. The bullae may be relatively small or quite large.Clinical featuresPatients are hypoxic and dyspneic. The dyspnea ranges from mild to the need for home oxygen supplementation with subsequent diminishment in the quality of life.DiagnosticsClinically, emphysema is a subset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The other causes of COPD including chronic bronchitis and hyperreactive airways can coexist. Emphysema is diagnosed by pulmonary function testing that shows a decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and increase in total lung capacity and residual volume.TreatmentMedical: Cessation of smoking eliminates progression of the disease but the tissue loss is irreversible.Surgical: Appropriately selected patients benefit from lung volume reduction surgery and/or resection of giant bullae. Operative mortality is minimal. Operative morbidity is significant but most patients recover and benefit with an improved quality of life. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1104584906 ER -