In this review article, endobronchial valve implantation in patients with pulmonary emphysema was evaluated for efficacy and safety. A systematic literature search was conducted, followed by a supplementary hand search. Three randomised controlled trials and eight observational studies were identified.
Due to methodological deficiencies of the randomised controlled trials and the uncontrolled study design of observational studies, the quality of the evidence was assessed according to GRADE as moderate to very low. The available evidence suggests that the investigated intervention is equally effective but less secure than drug therapy.