Woman gets breather with breakthrough in lung surgery

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare lung disorder and its incidence is estimated to be only around one per million

A 24-year old techie from the US, Divya got a new lease of life from a rare lung disease after the ‘whole lung lavage’ procedure performed by a team of pulmonologists at Yashoda Hospitals in Hyderabad. Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare lung disorder and its incidence is estimated to be only around one per million.

After initial investigations including a CT of the chest, bronchoscopy and lung biopsy were performed on the patient by a team led Dr MV Nagarjuna and Dr P Navneet Sagar Reddy, the diagnosis was confirmed for the rare disorder.

For the treatment of the disease, a procedure named ‘Whole lung lavage’ was performed. Dr MV Nagarjuna; Interventional Pulmonologist; Yashoda Hospitals, Somajiguda explained, “In this procedure, each lung is cleaned with several litres of saline. Saline is instilled into the lungs in one litre aliquots and the fluid is then drained after physiotherapy.

The fluid which is drained initially will be milky white (because of the protein) and will gradually clear as the lungs get cleaned. This cycle of instillation and drainage is continued till the return fluid is completely clear.”

Under general anaesthesia, the lungs of the patient were cleaned in two different sessions of six hours each, using a total of 40 litres of saline. Dr PNS Reddy; Senior Pulmonologist; Yashoda Hospitals said, “Following the procedure, Divya has major symptomatic as well as radiologic improvement.

She is able to walk comfortably and climb upto two flights of stairs. Her blood oxygen saturation also improved to 97 per cent. Any delay in diagnosis and treatment could lead to mortality as it is a very rare disease.

Many people including doctors doesn’t aware of the existence and available treatment of this dreadful ailment.” Divya was discharged earlier this week and is reported to have been recuperating well.