pneumonectomy
Meaning of pneumonectomy: Taking a whole lung leaves a space the body must fill, and that space is what separates the operation from smaller lung resections.
Definition of pneumonectomy
Pneumonectomy is the surgical removal of an entire lung, leaving one lung to do the work of two. It is performed most often for lung cancer that crosses between lobes or reaches the central airways, and occasionally for severe infection or injury. Removing a single lobe is a lobectomy, and taking part of a lobe is a segmental or wedge resection.
How does it compare with smaller operations?
| Operation | What is removed | Usual reason |
|---|---|---|
| Pneumonectomy | One whole lung | Tumor crossing lobes or involving the main airway |
| Lobectomy | One lobe | The standard cancer operation for a confined tumor |
| Segmentectomy | One anatomical segment of a lobe | Small tumor, or limited breathing reserve |
| Wedge resection | A non-anatomical piece | Diagnosis, or a small peripheral lesion |
The terms are often muddled. Removing one or more lobes is a lobectomy or bilobectomy, not a partial pneumonectomy; that phrase survives in older writing but names nothing surgeons perform under it today. The distinction is not pedantry, because how much lung is taken drives the risk, and each step down the list is safer than the one above.
What happens to the empty space?
The chest cavity does not collapse once its lung is gone. Fluid gradually fills the space over weeks, the remaining lung expands somewhat, the diaphragm rises, and the heart and windpipe shift toward the emptied side. The end state is stable, and the fluid filled cavity is expected rather than a complication. A sudden change in that fluid level afterward is what signals trouble, such as a leak from the closed bronchial stump.
Who can tolerate it?
Breathing tests and often exercise testing come first, and predicted function after surgery is calculated from how much work the diseased side still contributes. Someone whose tumor has already destroyed that side loses less than the raw figures suggest. The right lung is the larger of the two, so a right sided operation removes more capacity and carries higher risk than a left sided one. Heart function, kidney function, age and walking capacity all feed the decision, and non-small cell lung cancer that is technically operable is sometimes treated another way for this reason alone.
How does it differ from extrapleural pneumonectomy?
The lung is not the only thing taken in that operation. Extrapleural pneumonectomy removes the lung together with the lining of the chest wall, part of the diaphragm and the sac around the heart, and it is used for mesothelioma rather than ordinary lung cancer. It is a far larger undertaking, and the two names should not be read as one operation.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
A right pneumonectomy was performed for a tumor involving the main bronchus.
Good to know
Partial pneumonectomy is not a current surgical term, since removal of a lobe is a lobectomy, and the fluid that fills the space after a whole lung is removed is an expected outcome rather than a complication.
Word origin
Where “pneumonectomy” comes from
From the Greek pneumon, meaning lung, joined to ektome, a cutting out.