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Study Finds Mixed Success in Emphysema Surgery

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that removing diseased lung tissue to treat emphysema may be most beneficial to the sickest patients, those with upper lung damage. But the experimental surgery actually increased the death rate in less ill patients with disease in the bottom part of the lungs. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.

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Joanne Silberner is a health policy correspondent for National Public Radio. She covers medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace.