Bilateral thoracoscopic stapled volume reduction for bullous vs diffuse emphysema

Background: We compared our results with bullous vs diffuse emphysema by performing a bilateral thoracoscopic stapled volume reduction technique in 15 patients (age 45–80, 10 males, five females). Methods: Eight patients demonstrated bullous emphysema and seven patients diffuse emphysema. Lung reduction was performed with a bilateral thoracoscopic stapled technique utilizing bovine pericardium in the supine position. Results: Comparison of the bullous versus diffuse groups revealed no significant differences in means for the following variables: length of air leak (7.5 vs 3.3 days); length of stay (8.1 vs 6.5 days); pre-op FEV₁ (23% vs 22%); pre-op dyspnea index (3.4 vs 3.6). At 3 months the bullous subset had a highly significant improvement (p < 0.007) in FEV₁ (88%) compared with the diffuse subset FEV₁ (59%). Conclusions: These early results suggest that patients with bullous emphysema are at no greater risk and demonstrate a significantly greater improvement in FEV₁ than patients with diffuse emphysema. Received: 14 May 1997/Accepted: 6 August 1997