What does this mean?
Pneumonectomy is the removal of a complete lung. This procedure is most often used to treat lung cancer when less radical surgery cannot achieve satisfactory results. It may also be the most appropriate treatment for a tumour located near the centre of the lung that affects the pulmonary artery or veins, which transport blood between the heart and lungs. In addition, pneumonectomy may be the treatment of choice when the patient has a traumatic chest injury that has damaged the main air passage (bronchus) or the lung’s major blood vessels so severely that they cannot be repaired.