BACKGROUND: Standard treatment for bronchiectasis comprises postural drainage and various regimes of antibiotic therapy. If the disease is confined to localised areas of lung, surgical resection of the affected segments is often performed. OBJECTIVES: To assess the benefit of surgical resection compared with standard ("conservative") treatment. SEARCH STRATEGY: The Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register of trials was searched up to April 2009. SELECTION CRITERIA: Only randomised, controlled trials were considered. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The titles, abstracts and citations were independently reviewed by the two reviewers to assess potential relevance for full review. MAIN RESULTS: No randomised or controlled clinical trials were found, other than case series or case-controlled studies. Subsequent update searches have failed to identify any trials. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment of bronchiectasis is widely used, but there appear to be no randomised controlled trials. It is not possible to provide an unbiased estimate of its benefit compared to conservative therapy.

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