Lung function after lobectomy in chronic pulmonary emphysema

We compared the prediction of postoperative pulmonary function in two groups: chronic pulmonary emphysema (CPE) group (n = 30) and normal control group (n = 41). These patients had a lobectomy because of lung cancer. We measured pulmonary function test (FVC, EFV1, TLC, FRC, RV, DLco), and pulmonary perfusion scan before and after surgery. We found correlation between the predicted and measured postoperative values very close in control group. Whereas, in CPE group, these correlations were very low especially in FVC and FEV1. We also calculated the pulmonary function on the operated and the non-operated sides. The correlation were very high without FEV1 in control group and all the measured values did not correlate to the predicted values. On the non-operated side, the correlations were high in both control and CPE groups. From these results we can conclude that it is difficult to predict the postoperative pulmonary function in the case of chronic pulmonary emphysema.