Low Cost Biological Lung Volume Reduction Therapy for Advanced Emphysema

The clinical utility of bronchoscopic methods for achieving lung volume reduction has been evaluated in patients with advanced emphysema because these procedures are uniformly safer than surgical volume reduction. These include one-way valves, or bronchial occlusive devices to collapse emphysematous regions of lung and bronchial fenestration with bypass stents to improve expiratory flow, wire coils implants that compress the airway and thermal vapor ablation that causes an acute injury with subsequent fibrosis and reductions in volume.