The younger age at diagnosis in the surgical group may also point to a greater severity of complaints, but the young age can also be explained by the high prevalence of dextrocardia, which easily raises suspicion of bronchiectasis and thus facilitates the diagnosis. In fact, the diagnosis of PCD was established at the age of 14 years in the patients with dextrocardia and at the age of 19 years if no dextrocardia was present. This was most apparent regarding daily cough and phlegm, hemoptysis, and respiratory infections. Due to the rarity of PCD , the present study concerns only 21 patients. Yet, in our opinion, it certainly cannot be concluded from the above observations that PCD is a contraindication for resection of bronchiectasis.
Patients subjectively benefit from resection.
Resection causes considerable morbidity, particularly when bilateral disease is present. The resections were rather extensive with an average of 6.6 segments per patient. Three patients had a resection of nine or more segments, a functional pneumonectomy, and not all ectatic segments were always removed. This might be caused by the young age at which bronchiectasis developed and resection was performed. The influence of surgery on dyspnea is equivocal as might be expected when nonfunctional segments are removed.