Pneumonectomy

Under pneumonectomy or pneumonectomy refers to the surgical removal of a lung, hence the entire lung tissue of a page from the main bronchus ( bronchus principalis ). The removal of a single lobe of the lung is called lobectomy.

Indications for pneumonectomy are a central located lung cancer or lung cancer, which consists of several herds, a pronounced pulmonary tuberculosis or the presence of numerous bronchiectasis. Before each pneumonectomy has to be checked whether the remaining other lung is functionally able to supply the blood of the person concerned with sufficient oxygen ( oxygenate ), so that an afterlife is possible. For this purpose, a lung function test and a Lungenperfusionsszintigrafie be used.

After the removal of a lung may lead to a " Postpneumonektomie syndrome " with dyspnoea exertional, which can be corrected through the use of a prosthetic volume expander in the area of the former lung by overextension of the lung parenchyma of the obtained lung. After a pneumonectomy, the remaining lung can grow and largely compensate for the loss of lung tissue, the more so the younger the patient. In a 33 - year-old woman, a volume increase with formation of new alveoli of the remaining lung of 77 % was observed over 15 years.