Surgical treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease

While the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis has been decreasing, the prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease has been increasing. Unlike tuberculosis, nontuberculous mycobacterial disease is not communicable. However, their indolent nature may result in extensive parenchymal destruction, causing respiratory failure and vulnerability to airway infection. Nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease, therefore, has been becoming a significant health problem. According to the 2007 American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America statement on nontuberculous mycobacterial diseases, the primary treatment is a multidrug treatment regimen. However, its efficacy is less than satisfactory for Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease, which is the most common type of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung diseases, and for Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease, which is notoriously resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs. The statement, therefore, has proposed a multidisciplinary treatment approach for these types of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung diseases: a combination of multidrug treatment regimen and adjuvant resectional surgery. This review covers the rationale, indication, procedure, and outcome of surgical treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease. The rationale of surgery is to prevent disease progressing by removing the areas of lung most affected, harboring the largest amounts of mycobacteria. The indications for surgery include a poor response to drug therapy, the development of macrolide-resistant disease, or the presence of a significant disease-related complication such as hemoptysis. The surgical procedures of choice are various types of pulmonary resections, including wedge resection, segmentectomy, lobectomy, or pneumonectomy. The reported series have achieved favorable treatment outcomes in surgically treated patients with acceptable morbidity and mortality rates.