WKRG.com - Lung Disease

Lung Disease

There are many disease processes that may cause shortness of breath. Often these causes can be viewed on a chest x-ray. The pulmonologist (lung doctor) has many tests to aid in diagnosis of the cause, but in some cases, a biopsy of the lung is necessary. The cause of the lung dysfunction may be infectious, inflammatory, secondary to cancer or may be from an unknown cause.

1. Lung cancer is a collection of abnormal cells found in the lung tissue. Most tumors are associated with smoking. As the tumors progress, they spread to the lymph nodes causing metastatic disease.
2. Pneumothorax is the development of air in the chest between the lung and the chest wall. This leak of air from the lung can be spontaneous, due to trauma, or a complication of emphysema.
3. Pleural effusion is a collection of fluid between the lung and the chest wall. This fluid may be caused by infection, trauma, cancer, congestive heart failure or previous chest surgeries. Eventually, enough fluid builds to cause shortness of breath.

LUNG SURGERY

Mediastinoscopy

The trachea or windpipe has lymph nodes running alongside it. These lymph nodes drain the lymph tissue from the lung. Occasionally, lung disease will involve these lymph nodes. In order to determine a diagnosis to aid your doctor in your treatment, we will biopsy one of these nodes. This involves a small incision at the base of your neck and passing a scope to this area to obtain a biopsy.

Lung Biopsy

There are other occasions where we will need to biopsy the lung directly. This can often be performed through the video endoscope. Using general anesthesia, we insert the scope through the chest and inspect the entire chest cavity. The appropriate portion of the lung is selected and a wedge of this tissue can be removed. In addition, fluid and lung cysts can be removed through the same minimally invasive small incision.

Lung Resection

When there is a mass in the lung, we may resect a portion of one lung or occasionally the entire lung. The right lung is divided into three segments, the left into two segments. Usually, we will remove one of these segments. Before removing any lung, we first inspect to see if the disease process involves the lymph node tissue or the chest wall. In some circumstances, we may not remove the lung lesion if the disease has spread elsewhere. After removal of a portion of the lung, the remaining lung will expand to fill the empty space. There will also be small areas of the lung that will leak some air for a few days and then usually stop. As these two processes occur, you will have chest tubes in place, which drain fluid and air and help the lung to re-expand.