Air Leak From Lung

Air leak from lung after major pulmonary resections is alveolar-pleural microfistulas resulting from damage to the visceral pleura during lung surgery. Despite advances in stapling techniques and repair methods to ensure pulmonary tightness after excision, air leak is the most common cause of prolonged hospital stay after lung surgery, accounting for 20 to 30% of post-surgical adverse events. Although painless, they remain a significant source of morbidity. 10 to 20% of patients may have a prolonged air leak requiring intervention. Prolonged air leak is defined as an air leakage that persists for 5 days or more. Prolonged air leak is independently associated with increased hospitalization costs of 18% to 27% according to the series reported in the literature, but also with increased costs after hospital discharge, up to 90 days postoperatively. Traditionally, the detection of air leak at the end of surgery is done by testing the lung for submersion in saline solution. With the development of major pulmonary resection techniques by conventional or robotic thoracoscopy (with closed chest), this method has become ineffective because it requires re-ventilating the lung in a closed rib cage, which cancels the visibility of the camera. However, the frequency of these adverse events and the morbidity associated with them now induces the placement of post-operative drains, which are very painful, unlike the leak itself, which makes the pain even more complex to bear for patients. Given the rapid transition to a minimally invasive surgical approach, having a method to detect and quantify intraoperative air leak on a closed chest is necessary in order to accelerate patients' postoperative recovery, reducing their postoperative pain while controlling the incidence of complications. A recent study has shown that the risk of postoperative air leak is possible based exclusively on intraoperative ventilator measurements, but the data are still too scarce to rely on them extensively.

Air leaks represent one of the most common complications and postoperative morbidity in thoracic surgery. Air leaks have been associated with the largest preventable morbidity associated with increased costs following lobectomy (typically related to increased length of stay). However, the standard used to detect and localize the air leaks, the submersion test, is not suitable for the standard surgical procedure, Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery. Considering the prevalence of this complication and the absence of a surgical standard of care for such complications, the aim of this study is to develop a system to create and send a glycerine aerosol smoke in the lungs of the patient. The smoke is visible with standard laparoscope and will flow though the pulmonary leak, thereby reducing postoperative surgical complications, morbidity, and length of stay for patients undergoing pulmonary resection.

Developing a methodology to detect, quantify and treat air leaks intraoperatively using a bio-adhesive, to thereby reduce postoperative surgical complications, morbidity, and length of stay for patients undergoing pulmonary resection.

The goal of this study is to assess the clinical feasibility of a novel, reusable, low cost gas analyzer that detects breath in chest drains in order to diagnose and heal air leaks. The investigators have developed prototype gas analyzers that attach to the outlet of any analog chest drain, and can be connected temporarily to the sampling port. They detect breath by measuring CO2, O2, and pressure, in order to supplement the information provided by the bubbles in the water seal.