Mechanical Sutures in Operations on the Lung

Design advances over the last three decades have resulted in a greater variety of surgical procedures utilizing surgical staplers. New approaches to the biopsy of pulmonary nodules, the treatment of emphysematous blebs and spontaneous pneumothorax, the management of incomplete fissures and small tumor extensions across a fissure (during lobectomy) and the technique of preliminary, diagnostic or definitive, therapeutic segmentectomy and its operative variations have been made possible by stapling.