Intraoperative use of a chest physiotherapy system during whole lung lavage for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

oleh: Avinash B. Kumar, Hans W. Schweiger

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: SAGE Publishing 2012-08-01

Deskripsi

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare condition caused by the excessive alveolar accumulation of surfactant proteins. The current standard of care for removing these secretions is through therapeutic whole lung lavage (WLL). We describe two successful cases of bilateral WLL involving the novel use of the Vestâ„¢ chest physiotherapy system thereby avoiding the need for extensive changes in patient position in the intraoperative period. In brief, it involves the induction of general anesthesia followed by single-lung ventilation while simultaneously performing large volume lavages on the nonventilated lung. The washout was enhanced using the Vestâ„¢ system.