CASE REPORT   

Chirurgia 2018 December;31(6):261-3

DOI: 10.23736/S0394-9508.18.04796-4

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Late development of bronchial stenosis due to missed bronchial rupture diagnosis after blunt chest trauma

Roberto CORZANI ¹ ✉, Marco GHISALBERTI ¹, Luca LUZZI ¹, Tommaso LIGABUE ¹, Claudia GHIRIBELLI ², Fabiola MENICONI ¹, Arash ASTANEH ¹, Lisa DE LEONIBUS ¹, Piero PALADINI ¹

¹ Thoracic Surgery Unit, Siena University Hospital, Siena, Italy; ² Bronchoscopy Unit, University Hospital of Siena, Siena, Italy

Chest trauma can affect any one or all components of the chest wall and thoracic cavity. Tracheobronchial injury is an extremely rare complication in these cases. These injuries may appear within months or years following the initial trauma. Herein, we present the case of a 71-year-old man with complete cicatricial retraction stenosis of the left main bronchus that was diagnosed 70 days after the initial trauma. In our patient the late presentation was probably due to an incomplete bronchial transection after the trauma. Lately the left main bronchus started to tear apart, but the scar tissue kept the two edges of the bronchus together. We performed an end-to-end anastomosis of the main left bronchus by posterolateral thoracotomy without lung resection. The postoperative chest X-rays showed a complete resolution of the atelectasis and a month after discharge, in an outpatient setting, the chest X-ray and fibro bronchoscopy showed a normal pattern.

KEY WORDS: Bronchial arteries - Thoracic injuries - Arteriovenous anastomosis