Prognosis | Diseases of the lung that require surgical treatment

Prognosis

The individual prognosis of lung diseases requiring surgical treatment varies greatly. It depends on the exact clinical picture, the patient’s general condition, the type of surgical intervention and many other factors. As a general rule, it can only be predicted that the more lung tissue that has to be removed, the more difficult the course of the disease becomes.

Patients from whom large parts of their lungs have to be removed are subsequently noticeably restricted in their remaining breathing capacity. Young patients with otherwise unremarkable lung findings can usually compensate for this. However, the more affected and weakened the patient’s lung is, the more difficult it is to ensure sufficient respiratory activity and oxygen supply to the blood.

In addition, especially in the case of diseases of the lung that require surgical treatment, there are unfortunately some examples of diseases that are known to have a very high tendency to recur, i.e. to form recurrences, even after a successful operation that has been performed optimally. As a result, the survival rates of these patients are very low when calculated over a five-year period. All in all, lung surgery and lung diseases in general always carry a relatively high risk, since the human lung is an indispensable and irreplaceable organ. In addition, almost every operation in this sensitive area involves the risk of serious complications with sometimes life-threatening consequences, which is why special attention should be paid to additional risk factors that can be influenced.