Herth Felix J.F., Shah Pallav L., Gompelmann Daniela (eds.) Interventional Pulmonology

European Respiratory Society, 2017. — (ERS Monographs). — ISBN: 978-1-84984-091-0.Pulmonary medicine is a sub-discipline of internal medicine with several attractive characteristics. The use of endoscopic methods for diagnosis and therapy offers the opportunity to work manually and to improve patient outcomes significantly. In comparison with other specialities, pulmonary interventional methods are still underdeveloped, despite the fact that non-pharmacological treatment often provides favourable outcomes. However, the field of bronchoscopic intervention is developing quickly. In diagnosis, new biopsy techniques and targeting strategies have been developed, with the use of endoluminal ultrasound being an outstanding approach of recent decades. In therapeutics, local cancer control is one of the main fields, while interventional treatment of COPD and asthma has raised significant recent interest. Despite these exciting developments, many methods used in interventional bronchoscopy require careful patient selection and the welldeveloped skills of the highly trained medical team.
In this Monograph, we provide the reader with a broad and detailed overview of the various applications of interventional bronchoscopy. The book begins with a section on Technical Aspects, which summarises standard techniques such as flexible and rigid endoscopy. The Diagnostic Procedures section presents information about novel and targeted biopsy approaches. The final section considers Therapeutic Interventions, providing chapters on the various approaches to the treatment of cancer, haemoptysis, COPD and asthma, amongst others.
Through careful topic selection, the Guest Editors, Felix J.F. Herth, Pallav L. Shah and Daniela Gompelmann, have created a book that successfully summarises current knowledge in this area. Together with the authors, they have produced a practice-guideline publication that provides both background information and hands-on guidance for use in the endoscopy unit. I would like to thank the Guest Editors and all of the authors for their hard work on this excellent book.