Surgery for postintubation tracheal and tracheosubglottic stenotic lesions.
Postintubation tracheal stenosis is a recognized problem. Although its incidence has recently decreases, it is still a difficult complication to treat. We have reviewed our experience with 10 patients with tracheal stenosis over the last five years between 1990 and 1995. There were seven male and three female patients with an average age of 14.2 +/- 4 years (range 6 to 48 years). Resection and reconstruction with primary anastomosis was performed in seven patients, while conservative treatment with dilatation was performed in two patients. One patient refused surgery. Operations performed included resection of tracheocricoid segment with tracheothyroid anastomosis (N=3) and tracheal resection with end-to-end anastomosis (N=4). The resected airway segment ranged from 3 cm to 6 cm. In view of the intense inflammatory and fibrotic process in and around the stenotic segment, the practice of tracheostomy for the relief of postintubation acute tracheal obstruction should not be taken lightly, as it adds not only to the severity of the inflammatory process, but also increases the length of the tracheal segment to be resected. Postoperatively, all patients were extubated; this was accomplished by the end of surgery in six patients, while the seventh patient was extubated three weeks later. There was no mortality in this series. When normal functional activity and airway patency were taken as two parameters to judge the outcome of surgery, results were good in six (86%) patients and satisfactory in one. These results support the validity of one-stage reconstruction approach as one alternative for the treatment of postintubation tracheal and tracheosubglottic stenotic lesions.
Ashour
M
M
Divisios of Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Anesthesia and Department of Radiology, King Khalid University Hospital, and Department of ENT, King Abdulaziz Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Al-Kattan
K
K
Rafay
M A
MA
El-Bakry
A
A
Al-Serhani
A
A
El-Dawlatly
A
A
Naguib
M
M
Seraj
M
M
Joharhy
I
I