Deflating the Lung for Surgery

Transcript

When we do lung surgery, because there’s no empty space in the chest, all of the space is taken up by the lungs, the heart, the blood vessels, we have to deflate the lung on the side that we’re working on as surgeons to make room for our instruments to maneuver. The way we do that is our anesthesia team places a special breathing tube at the time of surgery called a double lumen endotracheal tube.

It essentially allows us to breathe with just one lung during surgery. So if we’re doing an operation on the right lung, we’re only breathing on the left. The right lung is completely compressed, so that that chest cavity has enough space for us to do the surgery.

Key Takeaways

1. In lung surgery, we have to deflate the lung to make room for our instruments to maneuver.

2. The anesthesia team places a special breathing tube called a double lumen endotracheal tube, which lets the patient breathe with just one lung during surgery.

3. If the operation is on the right lung, you’re only breathing on the left – the right lung is completely compressed.