Emphysema is a common and prevalent disease that poses a serious threat to human health. The 5-year survival rate of patients with end-stage emphysema is only 25%. There is no effective medical treatment available. In developed countries, lung transplantation has become the only treatment for end-stage emphysema. However, it is limited by the lack of donors, lung preservation and immune rejection. The vast majority of patients die while waiting for lung transplantation. In 1995, Professor Cooper in the United States reported a new procedure, Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), to remove some of the overinflated lung tissue, reduce the lung volume, and restore the elastic retraction of the lung. Professor Cooper reported that a new procedure, lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), was performed to treat end-stage emphysema with satisfactory results. At the same time, the mechanism of lung volume reduction surgery was proposed. This result immediately attracted the attention of the thoracic surgery community and was called one of the most exciting advances in thoracic surgery in 1995. In recent years, clinical studies of this procedure have been carried out in many foreign centers, and satisfactory results have been achieved. Nowadays, this technique is gaining more and more recognition and attention as an over- and/or alternative procedure to lung transplantation to prolong patient survival and improve quality of life. Prof. Liangxu Wang of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, is one of the early experts to conduct clinical studies on this new procedure in China. In the past ten years, he has completed more than 100 cases of lung decompression surgery and has achieved good clinical results and accumulated rich clinical experience. Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) is a new minimally invasive surgical technique developed in the 1990s. Compared with traditional thoracic surgery, VATS has the advantages of less trauma, less blood loss, faster recovery and less pain. The introduction of this new technology has completely changed the concept of traditional thoracic surgery with high trauma and slow recovery. Most patients with severe emphysema are weak and have poor ability to tolerate surgical trauma. Director Wang Liangxu used VATS technology for pulmonary decompression surgery to reduce surgical trauma with high safety and smooth patient recovery.