Moroccan Surgeons Perform Groundbreaking Lung Cancer Operation Using Heart-Lung Machine

This feat was accomplished by this team, composed of thoracic surgeons, cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists-intensivists, perfusionists, and nurses. The patient, a 49-year-old man, suffered from a malignant tumor of the right main bronchus. The tumor invaded the right pulmonary artery (RPA) in the pericardial area and the carina using extracorporeal circulation (ECC).

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, the particularity of this technique lies in the use of ECC to allow the carcinological resection of the tumor that invaded the intrapericardial RPA as well as the respiratory assistance allowing the end-to-end trachea-left main bronchus anastomosis after right extended pneumonectomy.

According to the same document, the merit of this technique is to make possible the resection of the tumor with healthy safety margins, an essential element of healing. Added to this is the realization of the arterial stage of the pneumonectomy as well as the tracheal resection-anastomosis performed under optimal safety conditions. For the Ministry of Health, the only remaining therapeutic possibility was still palliative concomitant radio-chemotherapy.

Regarding this type of surgery, the ministry specifies that it can only be performed with a multidisciplinary care. It also requires close collaboration between the various practitioners, whether doctors or nurses, of a university hospital structure with a high-performance technical platform.