Our data prove that wound analgesia is an effective, easy and safe procedure. It significantly reduces systemic inflammatory markers, pain scores and opioid intake; and accelerates the recovery of respiratory function. Catheter placement does not require particular manoeuvres by the surgeon nor does the elastomeric pump need any adjustment or care by physicians or nurses.

Our study showed that the volumetric quantification adds further informations to the routine evaluation for optimizing the selection of patients scheduled for endobronchial valve treatment.

Detection of GGOs on ultrasound scans is feasible, but differentiation of the histological subtypes of adenocarcinomas is not possible. The next step is to evaluate the intraoperative reproducibility of our results.