Prediction of postoperative pulmonary function with the lateral position test. A prospective study.
Ten patients undergoing pneumonectomy were evaluated with the lateral position test (LPT) in addition to routine pulmonary function tests (PFTs). On the basis of the percentage of ventilation estimated to be contributed by each lung on LPT, predictions were made for expected values for each patient's post-pneumonectomy PFTs. One to three months after surgery patients were again evaluated with complete pulmonary function studies. Results were found to agree closely with preoperative predictions in most patients. We conclude that the easily performed LPT, previously found to yield values which correlate with those found on bronchospirometry and macroaggregate lung scanning, does indeed yield acceptable results clinically and is deserving of more widespread application, especially in the large number of institutions without nuclear medicine capabilities.
D000328:Adult; D002283:Carcinoma, Bronchogenic / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D011013:Pneumonectomy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests