Cirurgia de redução de volume no enfisema pulmonar**Conferêcia proferida nas I Jornadas de Pneumologia do Centro Hospitalar do Funchal. Março. 1999.

ABSTRACTPulmonary emphysema is a chronic, prograssive and invalidating disease. Until recently, pulmonary transplantation constituted the only hypothesis of cure of the disease. Recently, however, lung volume reduction surgery was popularised and demonstrated excellent short and medium term results. This technique is based on the principle that the elimination of the hyperinflated, non-functional areas permits the expansion of the normal, functional parenchyma. It may be applied unilaterally or bilaterally. Operative mortality is relatively low (3-5%) and the FEV1 increases significantly immediately after surgery and continues to improve, up to one year of follow-up. Patient survival is markedly improved, 80% of the patients remaining alive after 3 years. Hence, long volume reduction surgery seems to have important advantages over transplantation and should be the first step in the surgical treatment of endstage pulmonary emphysema.REV PORT PNEUMOL 1999; V (4): 40S-41