Abstract
Prolonged air leak after lung resection is the most prevalent complication and a source of other morbidities and considerable expenses. Digital pleural drainage systems have appeared in the market claiming to be useful tools for improved postoperative patients’ care and control. To date, there is strong evidence in the literature demonstrating that the use of these devices helps to standardize postoperative care. Other advantages (such are their effect on decreasing hospital staying and costs per procedure or the usefulness of stored data for better understanding the physiology of the pleura after lung resection) are still waiting to be proved.
Disclosures
The author is an advisor for Atrium Medical (Hudson, NH, USA)
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Notes
- 1.
Specific characteristics of each commercially available system are neither reviewed nor discussed in this text. The reader can find more information visiting the corporate web pages at: http://old.atmosmed.com/html/seiten/produkte;products;kat,17;910,en.html?PHPSESSID = 49ed7eba9ac21fdb048b52640bc48c32; http://www.redax.it/index.asp?ind = famiglia_2.asp; and http://www.medela.com/US/en/healthcare/products/thoracic-drainage/thopaz.html [cited 19 Aug 2013].
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Varela, G. (2014). Digital Drainage Systems After Major Lung Resection. In: Ferguson, M. (eds) Difficult Decisions in Thoracic Surgery. Difficult Decisions in Surgery: An Evidence-Based Approach, vol 1. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6404-3_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6404-3_16
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