[A new surgical treatment with reduction of lung volume for severe pulmonary emphysema]

Current drug treatment of pulmonary emphysema has little effect on quality of life and duration of survival. Surgical treatment for patients with severe pulmonary emphysema was recently introduced; it consists of resection of lung tissue with poor ventilation and perfusion. Surgical reduction of lung volume improves the forced expiratory pressure per second by 80-100% from 0.8 to 1.51. This increases the exercise tolerance and improves the patient's functioning in everyday life. The postoperative mortality and morbidity are acceptable.