EVALUATION AND TREATMENT OF FACTORS INVOLVED IN POSTLOBECTOMY COLLAPSE OF THE LUNG

Abstract

The initial stage in the surgery of pulmonary resection has now passed. In the pulmonary as in every region of the body when emerging within the scope of surgical intervention, operation carried with it a high mortality rate. But in the last decade the rate associated with lobectomy has steadily declined from 50 per cent to an average of 10 per cent, and it is even as low as 2.5 per cent in certain clinics for patients with diseases of the chest. Now the emphasis has shifted from the immediate risk of resection of a progressive and eventually fatal lesion to the securing of the maximum postoperative function for the patient. Actually today both these problems are one, namely, the prevention of postoperative collapse of the lung. CAUSATION OF POSTLOBECTOMY COLLAPSE OF THE LUNG Collapse of the lung after lobectomy is of two distinct types, depending on whether the involved