Bullectomies for bullous sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis: an underrecognised cause for bullous lung disease?

“…Lung function showed an obstructive picture in 11 cases [1-3, 4, 7], restrictive in three cases [2,5,6] and preserved spirometry in one case [10]. In all cases in which DL,CO was measured, significant impairment in the values were noted [4,7,10].…”

“…Males were more frequently affected than females in a ratio of 2:1. In only half of the cases was the race specified [1,3,5,7,9,10] and no ethnic differences in incidence was noted. Most patients had been noted to have bullous changes within 3-4 yrs of symptom development [2][3][4]7].…”

“…The condition was first reported in 1949 by ZIMMERMAN and MANN [1]. A Medline search has further revealed a total of 17 more case reports of bullous sarcoidosis since then [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Of the remaining 12 patients, three were never-smokers [2,4,7], while two had smoking history of ,10 pack-yrs [7]. Seven patients had presented with single or recurrent pneumothoraces, affecting the right more frequently than the left [2,[4][5][6]10].…”

“…Systemic steroids were given to 10 patients, with variable outcomes [2,[4][5][6][7]. Duration of follow-up was highly variable amongst the case reports.…”