Lungs... Who Needs Them

At National Jewish Hospital, where I work, it is common place to hear about Thoracotomies. This is a procedure that removes part or even all of a lung. The reason this is sometimes a necessary treatments is due to malignant or benign diseases that fest in the lungs. The most common Thoracotomies I have seen at the hospital are either Lobectomies (the removal of one of the lobes of one of the lungs), or the Pneumonectomy (removal of one whole lung) (USC 2011). The reason this last resort procedure may take place is due to the common cold. Some individuals who lack physiological functions to expel disease will be unable to get rid of the common cold and in turn it will build up in the lungs and be very difficult to get rid of, even with intense antibiotics. The body is very resilient though and depending on age and health the body can recover very quickly. For example, in a study conducted on lambs 2-24 days old a Thoracotomy was performed to measure if and how long it takes for the their bodies to recover (Sidi 1982). This study was able to conclude that 48-72 hours preceding procedure the lambs were able to adequately recover to levels seen before the surgery. No matter how lambs respond to the surgery it is still scary for anyone undergoing this procedure with fear of complications. One way to determine if a patient is a good candidate for the procedure is a simple fitness test. In an article found in The American Review of Reparatory Disease, patients with VO2max greater than 20 ml/kg/min only showed 10% of complications where all the patients in the test pool with a VO2max less than 15 ml/kg/min showed complications (Smith et al 1984). Therefore, going into the procedure knowing how fit and healthy your body is will be a good cursor to how well your body will respond to the operation. Thoracotomies are performed for a variety of other reasons as well but the fact that this a common place operation is proof of the advancement of modern medicine.

Smith Tp, Kinasewitz GT, Tucker Wy, Spillers WP, Geroge RB (1984). Exercise capacity as a predictor of post-theracotomy morbidity. The American Review of Respiratory Disease, 129(5): 730-4.
USC (2011). A Patient’s Guild to Lung Surgery. www.cts.usc.edu
Sidi D, Kuipers RG, Heyman A, Rudolph M (1982). Recovery of Cardiovascular Function in Newborn Lambs after THoractotomy. Pediatric Research, 16(9).