[Role of combined pulmonary resection during descending thoracic aortic aneurysmectomy]

Between April, 1982 and December 1990, five of 98 patients who underwent aneurysm repair for the thoracic aorta received combined resection of the descending thoracic aortic aneurysm and the lung because of marked adhesion between the aneurysm and the lung. Partial resection of the upper lobe of the lung was performed in all of five patients with auto-suture device. Three of the five patients needed no homologous blood transfusion during the surgery. Neither operative death nor pulmonary complication related to lung injury and bleeding was noticed. Our results indicate that partial resection of the lung is beneficial for avoiding intra-operative rupture of the aneurysm as well as lung injury in patients with descending thoracic aortic aneurysm severely adherent to the lung.