Guiding Principles in the Management of Synchronous and Metachronous Primary Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Multiple lung cancers can be found simultaneously, with incidence ranging from 1% to 8%. Documentation of more than 1 pulmonary lesion can be challenging, because these solid, ground-glass, or mixed-density tumors may represent multicentric malignant disease or intrapulmonary metastases. If mediastinal nodal and distant deposits are excluded, surgery should be contemplated.

Combined transection of the left common carotid artery and delayed left main bronchus disruption after blunt chest trauma.

A 26-year old female was hit in the cervical region by a large block of ice and admitted with stable vital signs and multiple fractures. Chest radiography demonstrated an enlarged mediastinum, and CT scan revealed a transection of the left common carotid artery at its origin, with a false aneurysm. The lesion was repaired using a median sternotomy, cardiopulmonary bypass, moderate hypothermia and cerebral antegrade perfusion through the right axillary artery.

Inflammatory pseudotumour of the lung.

Inflammatory pseudotumours of the lung are extremely rare. Their pathogenesis is controversial, their diagnosis is often difficult and their clinical behaviour may be unpredictable - ranging from benign to locally invasive, to metastatic in spite of an apparently 'benign' histology. A patient who presented with multiple recurrent lesions in the contralateral lung almost two years after the resection of a large primary tumour of the left upper lobe is reported.

History and current status of bronchoplastic surgery for lung cancer.

Sleeve lobectomy for carcinoma of the lung was first described as a compromised operation for patients whose pulmonary reserve was considered inadequate to permit pneumonectomy. Since then, many authors have suggested that bronchoplasties may provide as good if not better results than pneumonectomy in selected cases of primary carcinoma of the lung involving the proximal bronchial tree. In all reported series, lesions in the hilum of the right upper lobe are the commonest indication for sleeve lobectomy, although all lobes and segments of the lungs may on occasion be involved with tumors that are amenable to some form of lung-sparing bronchoplastic procedure.

Sleeve pneumonectomy.

Lung cancer involving the carina can be treated by surgery, but patients must be carefully selected before the operation. Because pneumonectomy is required in addition to carinal resection, patients must be able to withstand the procedure, and they must be told that the operative mortality is 2 to 4 times higher than what is expected after standard pneumonectomy. Patients who have mediastinal nodal disease documented preoperatively by mediastinoscopy should not have this operation.

Sleeve lobectomy versus pneumonectomy for lung cancer: a comparative analysis of survival and sites or recurrences.

Background: Sleeve lobectomy (SL) in a lung-saving procedure indicated for central tumors for which the alternative is pneumonectomy (PN). Although it has been suggested that it may provide as good if not better survival results than pneumonectomy in the treatment of lung cancer, there are very few reports of clinical series comparing operative mortality, survival, and sites of recurrences between these procedures.

Methods: Survival and sites of recurrences were analyzed and compared in 1,230 consecutive patients who underwent PN (n = 1,046) or SL (n = 184) in a single institution.

Role of Eloesser flap and thoracoplasty in the third millennium.

In the modern era of thoracic surgery, few indications remain for thoracoplasty. Indeed, many surgeons believe that the resulting deformity outweighs the usefulness of collapse therapy. Rather than trying to obliterate chronic spaces, these surgeons advocate myoplasty techniques to fill the space.