Ventilation and Complications after Lung Resection: Reply

We thank Dr. Hoftman and Dr. Umar for their comments¹  and their interest in our focused review.²  In their letter to the editor, they refer to their interesting work on the utility of vital capacity to estimate tidal volume in contrast to the widely used predicted body weight in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. Their work did not report on clinical outcomes.³  As these authors acknowledge, their data were derived from a small retrospective dataset, and their results are exploratory. Large clinical trials should be conducted before revising clinical care pathways.^1,3  In the continuously enhanced world of personalized medicine, dogma most certainly should be challenged. Our review presented clinical outcome data that showed conflicting results on the association of not only tidal volume but also other parameters of protective lung ventilation bundles and morbidity in patients undergoing lung resection. We stressed the importance of proven...