Segmental Resection

Segmental resection, also called segmentectomy, is a surgical procedure that removes a defined portion of an organ or gland rather than the entire structure, distinguishing it from a resection that takes the whole organ. Surgeons use it both to take out a tumor along with a margin of surrounding healthy tissue and, in lung cancer surgery specifically, to remove one segment of a lung lobe while preserving the rest of the lobe. Whatever tissue is removed, the edge left behind, the resection margin, has to be free of cancerous cells for the operation to be considered successful.