© 2002 Thorax
EDITORIAL
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Lung volume reduction surgery
Departments of Respiratory Medicine and Surgery, Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor D M Geddes;
LVRS works, but can we make it safer?
Keywords: lung volume reduction surgery; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
There are now five controlled trials showing that lung reduction for emphysema can alter lung function, increase walking distance, and improve quality of life.1–5 There are problems with each study in terms of design, duration, and small sample size but, taken together, they give a strong message that lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) has a role in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, we need much more evidence before we can define exactly what this role is and when to recommend surgery. In particular, we need better ways of predicting benefit and risk. We also need to understand how LVRS works in order to develop better and safer ways of doing it. The large National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) study6 which began 2 years ago and is expected to take 4 years to complete will provide some of the answers, and early results
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