Surgical Options for Complete Resectable Lung Cancer Invading the Phrenic Nerve

Management of Diaphragm Paralysis and Eventration

An elevated diaphragm may be due to eventration or paralysis. Diaphragm elevation is often asymptomatic and found incidentally on imaging. Fluoroscopic testing can be used to differentiate eventration (no paradoxic motion) from paralysis (paradoxic motion). Regardless of etiology, a diaphragm plication is indicated in all symptomatic patients with an elevated diaphragm. Plication can be approached either from a thoracic or abdominal approach, though most thoracic surgeons perform minimally invasive thoracoscopic plication. The goal of plication is to improve lung volumes and decrease paradoxic elevation of the hemidiaphragm. Diaphragm plication is safe, has excellent outcomes, and is associated with symptom improvement.

[Conservative management of the phrenic nerve and surgical treatment of lung cancer]

Bronchial carcinoma may involve the phrenic nerve, confronting the surgeon with a difficult choice. In 10 patients undergoing surgery for bronchial carcinoma without previous diaphragmatic palsy, extension to the nerve was discovered during the thoracotomy, leading to a choice between radical surgery involving resection of the nerve, with subsequent diaphragmatic palsy, or incomplete conservative resection preserving the lung function. Conservative surgery was chosen. The subsequent evolution validated this choice. However, the paucity of papers on such cases, although they are not outstandingly unusual, should be noted.