Open Lobectomy
Massachusetts General Hospital
Christopher R. Morse, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Co-Director, Gastroesophageal Surgery Program

An adult male with cystic fibrosis (CF) presents with a chronically damaged left upper lung lobe that Dr. Christopher Morse decides to treat with an open lobectomy given that the patient was not going to heal from antibiotic therapy and still had mild preserved pulmonary function. Two unusual things in this procedure are the dense inflammatory changes at the hilum and the use of muscle from chest wall to reinforce the bronchial closure because of the patient’s recurrent and chronic pulmonary infections due to CF.