Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is, of 2024, one of the three main causes of death in the world, affecting around 12% of the world's population. Its incidence is estimated to increase in the coming decades due to continuous exposure to risk factors and to an aging population.

Pulmonary emphysema is one of its most serious phenotypes, with chronic and inexorable progression and, in the most severe stages, it is highly disabling and lethal.

This book reviews knowledge about the pathophysiology of severe pulmonary emphysema and the current innovative interventional and minimally invasive therapeutic concepts for the management of these advanced stages of emphysema, based on the best scientific evidence.

This guide provides to multidisciplinary pulmonary boards of experts in advanced lung diseases, current criteria for the choice of precision therapeutic options and beyond to maintaining optimized medical treatment to controlling lung hyperinflation, and alleviating patients' symptoms.

This book is a valuable resource for clinicians dealing with critically ill patients with COPD.

Luis C. Losso, MD, PhD

Director, Center for Thoracic Medicine and Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Edmundo Vasconcelos, São Paulo, Brazil

Director, Research Center for Thoracic Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil

COPD Foundation, Brazilian Captain, USA

Latin American Thoracic Advisory Board for Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery, Professional Education, Johnson & Johnson Institute

Philosophical Degree in Medicine, Postgraduate Program in Operative Technique and Experimental Surgery at the Escola Paulista de Medicine at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil

Certification of Specialist in Thoracic Surgery, Brazilian Society of Thoracic Surgery

Certification of Specialist in Pulmonology, Brazilian Society of Pulmonology

1972 Graduation in Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of Marília

Professor Luis C. Losso’s interests include advanced lung disease, severe pulmonary emphysema, and interventional treatments to reduce lung volume; he was involved in trials into the bronchoscopic treatment of pulmonary emphysema with drug-eluting stents.

Professor Losso is active in publishing scientific papers in national and international medical journals; he has edited thoracic surgery books and authored chapters for them; he has been a speaker at international and national lectures on thoracic surgery. Professor Losso is a former president of the South American Chapter of the International Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Group (USA); founder of the Brazilian Society of Thoracic Surgery; founder of the Brazilian Society of Pulmonology; a member of the Ibero-American Association of Thoracic Surgery; and a member of the Latin American Thoracic Association.

Prof. Pallav Shah, MD, MBBS, FERS, FRCP

Professor Pallav Shah is currently professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College, London. He is a senior consultant physician the Royal Brompton Hospital, and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. He qualified in medicine at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, and trained in pulmonology at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Professor Shah is active in both the research and the development of new treatments. He has over 250 papers and several books to his credit – including his contribution as sectional editor of the thoracic section of Gray's Anatomy (39th & 40th editions) and as sectional editor for respiratory section of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine (6th edition). He also the author of Atlas of Flexible Bronchoscopy and chief editor of Essentials of Clinical Pulmonology. He has also been involved in the HERMES education program for the European Respiratory Society

Professor Shah pioneered bronchoscopic lung volume reduction for emphysema with devices such as the Zephyr endobronchial valves, endobronchial coils, vapor treatment, and intrabronchial valves. More recently he has been focused on the treatment of COPD with vapor therapy, targeted nerve ablation and the novel RejuvenAir (cryospray) procedure for chronic bronchitis.

Gerard J. Criner, MD

Gerard J. Criner, MD, is professor and founding chair of the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery and Temple Lung Center at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His research interests include respiratory failure, lung volume reduction surgery, bronchoscopic lung reduction and the prevention and treatment of acute COPD exacerbations.

Walter Weder, MD

Walter Weder, MD, is professor of surgery and former director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Switzerland. He currently works at the Thoracic Surgery Clinic Bethanien, Zurich. He was educated at the Medical School of the University of Zurich and at Stanford University, graduated in Zurich, and became a thoracic surgeon after his surgical training at USZ and a Research Fellowship in Lung Transplantation at Washington University (Joel D. Cooper), St. Louis, USA. He is a member of many national and international medical societies, including AATS, ESTS, IASLC, EACTS, ESMO, STS, ISHLT, and ERS.

Professor Weder is also the founding president of the Swiss Society of Thoracic Surgery, the Lung transplant group of Swiss transplants, the former president of the European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS) and a board member of ETOP. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University in Boston, MSKCC in NYC, and Shanghai Chest Hospital. In 1992, Professor Weder performed the first lung transplant in Switzerland and in 1994 the first thoracoscopic lung volume reduction procedure worldwide. In 2004, he started a robotic surgery program for mediastinal disease and lung cancer. Over the years, his research activity has focused on thoracic malignancies, especially malignant mesothelioma, and locally advanced lung cancer, as well as emphysema surgery and lung transplantation. He is an author of over 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

José R. Jardim, MD

José R. Jardim, MD, graduated in medicine in 1970 from the Escola Paulista de Medicina, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he was later awarded his PhD in Medical Sciences. He has also completed a 2-year fellowship in respiratory pathophysiology from the McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Jardim is a senior professor of respiratory diseases and the former director of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centre at Escola Paulista de Medicina of Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, for over 30 years.

He was chairman of the Education Department twice and served three times as chairman of the COPD Committee of the Brazilian Thoracic Society (SBPT). Dr. Jardim was a member of the Planning Committee of the Rehabilitation Assembly of American Thoracic Society (ATS) for five years and served on the Nominating Committee of the same assembly. He served on the Board of Directors of ATS representing the International Community. He was president of the Latin American Thoracic Society (ALAT) for two terms and one term for the Brazilian Association for Asthmatic Patients. Currently, he is on the editorial boards for several Brazilian and international journals, and has published a book on rehabilitation as well as over 250 peer-reviewed papers and 90 chapters. His main interests are asthma, COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation.