Randomized Comparison of Awake Nonresectional Versus Nonawake Resectional Lung Volume Reduction Surgery

There is increasing scientific evidence that resectional lung volume reduction (LVR) can induce long lasting clinical improvements in selected patients with upper-lobe predominant emphysema and that clinical benefit and survival are better than those achieved with maximized medical treatment. The most widely employed surgical technique entails unilateral or bilateral staple resection of the most emphysematous lung tissue performed under general anesthesia through open or thoracoscopic approaches. However, the type of surgical approach did not modify the considerable procedure-related morbidity, which can be mainly addressed to general anesthesia and surgical trauma deriving from resection of emphysematous lung tissue. Indeed, following resectional LVR expected mortality and pulmonary morbidity are 5.5% and 30%, respectively. Time spent for postoperative recovering is often prolonged with about 30% of patients still hospitalized or in rehabilitation facilities at 1 month and 15% still not at home 2 months after the operation. As a result, the cost-effectiveness of LVR continue to be questioned. In recent years, the concept of nonresectional LVR is being investigated and new bronchoscopic approaches have been developed in an attempt of reducing the typical shortcomings of resectional LVR. Within the framework of the proposed nonsurgical methods which differ somewhat in physiopathologic bases and mechanism of LVR, a common denominator is that, so far, all needed general anesthesia. We have developed an awake nonresectional LVR surgery technique, which respects the basic concepts of resectional LVR but adds some theoretical advantages and is performed under sole thoracic epidural anesthesia. Following an initial pilot study to assess feasibility and early results, we want to analyze in a randomized fashion the perioperative morbidity and comprehensive 2-year results of thoracoscopic lung volume reduction surgery performed by the awake nonresectional or nonawake resectional surgical techniques.