The classification of thymoma has always been controversial topil in recent years. It hasn’t been unified because of the morphological diversity of thymoma, the heterogeneity of tumour cells and the lack of simple and effective observation index. With the development of diagnostic technique and oncobiology research, several classification methods have been drawn off, including its World Health Organization(WHO) lassification. We reviewed the main classification and discussed the problems of each classification method and their clinical guiding significamce, summarized the development tendency, methods assist the classification and clinical research of thymoma.
Lung transplantation has been the only valid method in treating end-stage lung diseases, airway complications are the main cause to the failure of surgery and common postoperative complications. With the development on patient selection, organ preservation, surgical technique, immunosuppressive therapy and postoperative surveillance, the successful ratio of surgery has become most satisfactory. However, airway complications are still common after lung transplantation. Among these, the airway anastomosis stenosis is more predominant than others. The living quality and long-dated survival rate are highly improved by paying enough attention to the formation,corresponding management for tracheal stenosis. The progress of the cause, prevention and treatment of airway anastomosis stenosis after lung transplantation is reviewed in this article.
With widespread utilization of multi-slice helical computed tomography (CT) and low-dose CT in lung cancer screening, significantly greater incidence of patients with solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) has been found. Once SPN is discovered, it is very difficult to immediately determine whether it is benign or malignant in clinical practice. In this review, SPN etiology, epidemiological characteristics of SPN patients, nodule size, morphology, location and growth rate, mathematical models for predicting malignancy of SPN, and diagnostic value of positron emission tomography (PET) and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) are summarized to provide reference for differential diagnosis of SPN. Current management strategies for SPN are also discussed in this review. According to whether SPN diameter is greater than 8 mm, whether SPN patients are advanced aged, have smoking or malignancy history, different follow-up and treatment strategies can be chosen. The diagnostic and treatment value of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for SPN is also discussed.
Objective To investigate prognostic factors of surgery treatment for pulmonary metastasis from rectal cancer. Methods From September 1973 to September 2007,43 patients, 12 women and 31 men with mean age of 58 years (ranged 36-77 years) were diagnosed and performed 45 curative resections of pulmonary metastases from rectal cancer in this hospital.Followup informations were collected including：the clinical parameters include age, sex, pTNM/UICC stage,the number, maximum diameter of lung metastases，the preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA) levels, the interval between resection of primary tumor and diagnosis of lung metastasis (disease-free interval (DFI)，the presence of hilar/mediastinal tumorinfiltrated lymph nodes，intraoperative blood loss and postoperative chemotherapy schemes. After lung metastasectomy，probability of survival was calculated according to the method of KaplanMeier.All factors that may have affected the survival were entered into Cox’s proportional hazards regression model to identify significant variables associated with survival. Results Fourty-three patients were selected fully follow-up cases, with mean period ranged from 1-103 months (median 54 months). There was 1 early postoperative mortality from cardiac complications (2.3%). The probability of survival at 1, 3, and 5 years was 91.3％，56.4% and 32.2%, respectively，Median overall survival was 42.6 months. The DFI was found to be 28.6 months（ranged 0-114 months）. Hilar or mediastinal tumorinvolvedlymph nodes were found in 9 patients. Fiveyear survival was 42.6% for patients with CEA＜5ng／ml and 18.0% for those with CEA≥5ng／ml (P=0.009).Fiveyear survival rate was 53.3% for patients with DFI≥3 years, 32.3% for those with1 year＜DFI＜3 years and 15.1% for those with DFI ≤1 year (P=0.036). In the multivariate analysis,the overall survival was significantly correlated with the preoperative serum CEA level and DFI (P=0.013,0.016),respectively. Conclusion Patients with pulmonary metastases from colorectal carcinoma will benefit from pulmonary metastasectomy. Patients with preoperative serum CEA ＜5ng／ml and DFI ≥3 years have an significantly long-term survival.
Objective To investigate the indication of carina reconstruction surgery for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer through analyzing the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of these patients.Methods Fifteen patients were involved in this retrospective analysis. One patient underwent carina resection and reconstruction, 6 patients underwent right pneumonectomy plus carina resection and reconstruction, 3 patients underwent right upper lobe and carina resection plus carina reconstruction, and 5 patients underwent left pneumonectomy plus carina resection and carina reconstruction. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival rate, and Logrank test was used to compare the survival difference between groups. Results The mean duration time for operation was 410 min(261.3±81.6min). The number of resected mediastinal lymph nodes was 10.8±3.7. No perioperative death occurred. Two patients complicated with pneumonitis after surgery, both of them recovered through machine supported respiratory combined with antibiotics administering; 1 patient complicated with chylothorax and recovered through noninvasive procedure; 1 patient underwent thoracotomy exploration due to the persistant air leak and cured by suturing the air leaking lung tissue.The median survival time for whole group was 39 months, 3-year and 5-year survival rate were 52.5%，22.5%, respectively. The median survival time for the patients underwent right pneumonectomy was 12 months, compared 40 months with that of other patients. Conclusion Carina reconstruction is necessary for some patients with locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer with main bronchus or carina invasion, despite the sophisticated operation procedure and high morbidity rate. While the right pneumonectomy plus carinal reconstruction should be avoided due to the poor prognosis.
The postpericardiotomy syndrome (PPS) is an inflammation of the pericardium or pleura following a variety of pericardial injuries. The potential pathogenic factors of the PPS are autoimmune, special virus and latent virus infection. PPS is self-limited, but may lead to prolonged hospital stay, readmissions, and need for invasive interventions. The therapy for PSS is mainly empiric anti-inflammatory therapy. The perioperative use of colchicine could reduce the incidence of PPS but is not effective for postoperative atrial fibrillation or postoperative pericardial/pleural effusion. This article mainly analyzes the incidence, risk factors, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment standards, preventive measures and prognosis of PPS.
With the development of thin section axial computed tomography scan, the detection rate of pulmonary ground-glass nodules (GGN) continues increasing. GGN has a special natural growth history: pure ground-glass nodules (PGGN) smaller than 10 mm can hold steady for a long term, surgery resection is unnecessary, patients need regular follow up. Larger part solid ground-glass nodules (PSN) with a solid component can be malignant early stage lung cancer, which requires early surgery intervention. Establishment of a standard definition of GGN growth, investments in the long term natural growth history of GGN, validation of the clinical, radiology and genetic risk factors would be beneficial for the management of GGN patients.