09/05/2026
Prolonged postoperative air leak (PAL) after thoracic surgery remains a major cause of morbidity, extended hospital stays, and bronchopleural fistula. Existing intraoperative aerostasis assessment methods, including water submersion testing, iodine indicator instillation, and ventilator flowmetry, are subjective, anatomically restricted, or provide limited information about the precise location and magnitude of individual leaks. This experimental study evaluates a quantitative intraoperative aerostasis monitoring approach employing a laser photoacoustic leak detector with sulfur hexafluoride SF6 as a biologically inert trace gas marker, configured in a rabbit thoracotomy model. Enjoy this open-access article at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lsm.70202
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