What is a Wedge Resection?

Transcript

Of all of the surgical procedures that we offer, wedge resection is the least ideal. The reason being is that it’s not an anatomic resection. It’s literally just taking the piece of lung that holds onto that nodule. So it’s typically only offered in cases where the patient has really poor lung function, or if we’re just trying to make the diagnosis before doing the full operation.

A wedge resection typically doesn’t remove very many lymph nodes in and of itself, but it is a treatment option for patients if that is all they can tolerate from a surgical standpoint. Concern with a wedge resection is that there is a higher local recurrence rate as opposed to an anatomic resection, meaning that there’s a chance of that lung cancer coming back in the same place, because there’s not as much of a margin of normal lung that’s taken from around it.

Key Takeaways

1. Wedge resection is the least ideal procedure because it’s not an anatomic resection.

2. It’s literally just taking the piece of lung that holds onto that nodule.

3. It’s typically only offered in cases where the patient has really poor lung function, or if we’re just trying to make the diagnosis before doing the full operation.

4. A wedge resection typically doesn’t remove very many lymph nodes in and of itself, but it is a treatment option for patients if that is all they can tolerate from a surgical standpoint.

5. The concern with a wedge resection is that there is a higher local recurrence rate as opposed to an anatomic resection, meaning that there’s a chance of that lung cancer coming back in the same place.