An intensive experimental and. clinical study of glomectomy has failed to demonstrate that the controversial procedure affords any significant benefit to patients with chronic bronchial asthma.
The study, by a group of investigators at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, included: (1) observation of the effects of glomectomy in dogs; (2) a follow-up of 24 patients who had undergone unilateral glomectomy, and (3) a double-blind study in 23 patients.
In 14 dogs, bilateral glomectomy resulted in slightly more labored respiration at rest. The administration of methacholine produced a significant bronchospastic response postoperatively, although it was of lesser magnitude than that produced when the agent was given preoperatively.
"The consistency of these effects were quite remarkable, and it would seem to indicate that glomectomy produced a limitation in the physiological range of changes expected during methacholine bronchoconstriction," said Maurice S. Segal, MD, clinical professor of medicine and director of the Boston