Surgery vs non-surgical treatment for bronchiectasis.

BACKGROUND

Standard treatment for bronchiectasis comprises postural drainage and various regimes of antibiotic therapy. If the disease is confined to localised areas of lung, surgical resection of the affected segments is often performed.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the benefit of surgical resection compared with standard ("conservative") treatment.

SEARCH STRATEGY

The Cochrane Airways Group trials register derived from MEDLINE, EMBASE and hand searching of major journals was searched using the terms [bronchiect* AND surg* OR resection OR lobect* OR pneumonect* OR segementect*].

SELECTION CRITERIA

Only randomised, controlled trials were considered

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

The titles, abstracts and citations were independently reviewed by the two reviewers to assess potential relevance for full review. STATISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS Not applicable

MAIN RESULTS

No randomised or controlled clinical trials were found, other than case series or case-controlled studies.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment of bronchiectasis is widely used, but there appear to be no randomised controlled trials. It is not possible to provide an unbiased estimate of its benefit compared to conservative therapy.