Edited by Michael Argenziano and Mark E. Ginsburg. 273 pp., illustrated. Totowa, N.J., Humana Press, 2001. $145. ISBN 0-89603-848-3.
Pulmonary emphysema is a common, progressive, disabling diseasethat carries a high mortality rate. It occupies one end of thespectrum of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), withchronic bronchitis at the other end of the spectrum. Invariably,bronchitic disease is much more responsive to medical managementthan is emphysema. The inexorable progression of emphysema,accompanied by increasing breathlessness, renders the patientdesperate for relief. Over the years, surgeons have respondedto the call for help by developing operative procedures fordifferent parts of the respiratory apparatus, including thechest wall, diaphragm, pleura, and nervous system. Althoughthese procedures were . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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