Lung emphysema represents a major public health burden and still accounts for 5% of all deaths worldwide. Hence, it is essential to further understand this disease in order to develop effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. In our focused series, we highlight this disease from several aspects beginning with advances in imaging, going through developments of surgical and interventional therapies of lung volume reduction, perioperative anesthesiologic considerations, and giving an overview of the different phenotypes of chronic obstructive disease and correlations between lung cancer and lung emphysema, and concluding with lung transplantation for lung emphysema.

Disclosure:
The focused issue “Lung Emphysema” was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Translational Medicine without any sponsorship or funding. Bassam Redwan is serving as the unpaid Guest Editor for the focused issue.