Mount Sinai Hospital Doctor Touts Pleurectomy/ Decortication Treatment

Renowned thoracic surgeon Raja Flores, M.D., isn't ready to abandon the aggressive and once-preferred extrapleural pneumonectomy procedure for patients with mesothelioma, but now he is convinced there is a better surgical option. Flores, chairman of the department of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, is part of a growing number of mesothelioma specialists around the world who believe the more precise, lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication is a better choice for most patients. Flores joined Emanuela Taioli, M.D., Ph.D., of Hofstra University School of Medicine; and Andrea Wolf, M.D., of Mount Sinai Hospital, in publishing the largest study comparing the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) with the pleurectomy/decortication (P/D). The most startling result of the analysis was an almost three-time higher rate of death within the first 30 days after the EPP surgery. Interview of Flores discussing mesothelioma treatments Both Surgeries Produce Long Term Survivors "The evidence now is pointing to the P/D as the surgery that serves the patient best," Flores told Asbestos.com. "I have patients who are long-term survivors from both procedures I've done, but I'd say the pleurectomy is the better choice now most of the time." The EPP involves removal of the entire diseased lung, the lining surrounding both the lung and heart and major parts of the diaphragm. The P/D, which is less extensive, removes only the visible tumors on the...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Treatment & Doctors Source Type: news