Lung Resection Can Benefit Patients With Mycobacteria xenopi Infection

Lung surgery is often beneficial for patients with drug-resistant Mycobacteria xenopi infections, researchers in France report. Patients with localized disease can be safely and effectively treated with some degree of pulmonary resection if pharmacologic treatment fails, according to Dr. Loic Lang-Lazdunski and colleagues at Georges Pompidou European Hospital and Necker Hospital in Paris. The new techniques are needed since the "results of medical therapy for Mycobacterium xenopi pulmonary infection remain unreliable," Lang-Lazdunski and co-authors said.

In a retrospective study, the researchers reviewed data from 18 patients infected with M. xenopi, a nontuberculous mycobacterium that can cause illness in elderly patients or in those with compromised immune systems. The results showed that therapeutic resections were usually lobectomies, while diagnostic operations were usually wedge resections. The hospital stay was 2-3 weeks on average, study data showed, with no in-hospital mortality seen. The most common complications were prolonged air leaks and pleural effusion, seen in five and three patients respectively.

After an average follow-up of roughly three years, 14 of the 18 patients had achieved symptomatic resolution with negative sputum cultures (Pulmonary Resection for Mycobacterium xenopi Pulmonary Infection, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2001; 72(6):1877-1882).

"Resection represents an important adjunct to chemotherapy for the treatment of M. xenopi pulmonary disease," Lang-Lazdunski and coworkers concluded.

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