title: [Bronchocutaneous fistula after treatment for breast cancer: a case report].
abstract: We describe a case of bronchocutaneous fistula that developed after surgery and radiotherapy for breast cancer. A 69-year-old woman presented with fever and the leakage, on expiration, of bubbles from a site on the left chest wall where a Halsted mastectomy and radiotherapy (60 Gy) had been performed 19 years earlier. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a fistula bridging a bronchus and the skin. Repeated biopsies of the fistula failed to disclose any malignancy. The fistula closed after treatment with antibiotics, and has remained closed for 9 months, as disclosed by identical tomographic images. The paucity of literature describing the diagnostic imaging of bronchocutaneous fistula prompted this report.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Surgery, Shimonoseki City Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishimaru
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ekimura
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D001983:Bronchial Fistula / Q000209:etiology*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D017577:Cutaneous Fistula / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*