Clinical Evaluation of Surgical Treatment for Hemoptysis Patients

Lee, Sung Joo; Moon, Seong Cheol; Kim, Dae Sig; Oh, Seong Cheol; Kim, Chang Hoe; Chae, Sung Soo

Abstract

The expectoration of blood is always a fearful experience for the patient and a matter of grave concern to the attending physician, because it may be the warning sign of serious diseases. When such bleeding occurs, the possibility of its being due to pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchiectasis or carcinoma of the lung is promptly suggested. Nowadays, with the advance of modern diagnostic studies, differential diagnosis has become possible for the hemoptysis patients to have appropriate treatment. This evaluation is based on the review of 75 cases of patients whom we performed emergency open thoracotomies for 6 years from March 1992 to February 1997 in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul Adventist Hospital. The mean age of the patients was 36.6 years old with a range from 19 to 68, and most prevalent age group was thirties. The most common underlying lung disease causing hemoptysis was tuberculosis(44%). Most accurate diagnostic study was bronchoscopy during hemoptysis(95%) and right middle and lower lobe(17.3%) was the most common site of lesion. Lobectomy(50%) was the most frequent operative method and recurrent hemoptysis(31.6%) was the most common postoperative complication. But most of the patients(82.6%) were completely recovered by surgical treatment. Now we concluded that the proper management of hemoptysis was completed by surgical approach with definite diagnosis and supportive medication.