Can lung cysts be cured?

Lung cyst is a congenital disease, which is mainly caused by certain problems in the patient's embryonic development, resulting in symptoms. There are two main types of cysts: lung parenchymal cysts and bronchogenic cysts. This disease is prone to occur in adolescence, sometimes unilaterally and sometimes multiplely. It is easy to communicate with the bronchi and form cysts, which is quite harmful to patients. More serious patients should undergo surgical treatment.

Lung cyst resection

1. Indications

Lung cysts cannot heal on their own. Complications such as infection, cancer, and tension pneumothorax after rupture will make the condition more complicated. Therefore, once the diagnosis is confirmed, surgery should be performed as soon as possible. Asymptomatic lung cysts can be treated electively for surgery, but the following situations should be treated as emergencies.

(1) The volume of the lung cyst exceeds 1/3 of the chest cavity on one side.

(2) Cyst rupture resulting in tension pneumothorax or pyopneumothorax.

(3) If the cyst is complicated by infection, it should generally be treated with effective antibiotics first, and then elective surgical treatment should be performed after the poisoning symptoms are relieved. For patients who are refractory to medical treatment, whose infection cannot be controlled or who have persistent hemoptysis, surgical treatment may be considered if there are no contraindications to thoracotomy and they are fully prepared.

2. Preoperative preparation

Patients with excessive sputum and cysts complicated with infection should use effective antibiotics in advance to control infection, actively adopt postural drainage, nebulization inhalation, and oral expectorants to control the sputum volume at an ideal level, which is very important for reducing postoperative complications.

3. Anesthesia and body position

Endotracheal intubation and intravenous combined anesthesia are usually used. The patient takes the lateral or supine position with the affected side elevated. For patients with lung cysts and infection and excessive sputum, double-lumen endobronchial intubation can be used. Children can use unilateral endobronchial intubation or thoracotomy in the head-down prone position to prevent aspiration during surgery.

4. Points to note during surgery

The surgical procedure should be selected according to the size, location, single or multiple cysts and the degree of infection of the lung cysts. Medical Education Network collected and sorted out that small and isolated lung cysts can be treated with lung segment resection. Small cysts in the peripheral lungs can also be treated with local excision or wedge resection (see "Pneumonectomy"). Large cysts near the hilum of the lung, multiple cysts confined to one lobe, or cysts with infection make segmental resection difficult and lobectomy may be performed (see "Pulmonary Resection"). If multiple lung cysts involve the entire lung, a complete lung resection should be performed (see "Pneumonectomy").

When lung cysts are connected to bronchi, care should be taken to be gentle during surgical removal to avoid squeezing the cysts and causing large amounts of secretions to flow into the trachea, resulting in suffocation and spread of infection. If necessary, the bronchi of the diseased lung can be controlled first after entering the chest.

Lung cysts may be infected and adhere to surrounding structures. When dissecting the adhesions, they must be carefully separated under direct vision. Note that lung cysts may be associated with other congenital malformations. There may be a congenital hidden communication between the esophagus and bronchi. When dissecting the mediastinal surfaces of the left and right lower lungs, special attention should be paid to abnormal arterial branches. You can first feel for abnormal pulsation and then separate the adhesions to prevent the abnormal blood vessels from retracting and causing heavy bleeding after being cut off.