Abstract
Interventional Pulmonology focuses on using advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for treatment of lung cancer, benign airway disorders and pleural diseases.
It is an area of respiratory medicine with rapidly evolving technology and shows tremendous scope for development, but there is a paucity of comprehensive texts in this subject area.
Interventions in Pulmonary Medicine has a varied authorship and covers all the hot topics that would appeal to the budding interventional pulmonologist. The book is divided into seven parts, which broadly range from basic endoscopy to more advanced procedures involved in tracheobronchial obstructions, lung cancer diagnosis and staging, pleural diseases and airways diseases. There is also a chapter on the role of bronchoscopy in special situations such as interstitial lung disease and the intensive care unit and thus something for all scenarios.
Each chapter is written from the perspective of an interventionalist with the latest evidence base and well illustrated using pictures that are pertinent to the procedures being discussed. The chapters are complemented with the associated radiology where relevant and a discussion of the likely complications that one may encounter in clinical practice.
The chapter on pleural procedures is particularly useful as medical thoracoscopy and indwelling pleural catheters are now common place and there is a detailed and illustrated step-by-step guide on how to perform each of these procedures, respectively. There are comprehensive reviews on the topical issues of the various modalities available for endoscopic lung volume reduction and the technique of bronchial thermoplasty.
There is wide variation in the practice of advanced interventional procedures across Europe, and therefore, this book serves as a good introductory reference text for all respiratory physicians wishing to specialize in interventional procedures and I would recommend that it should be kept in all bronchoscopy suites.