• Byeong-Ho Jeong, Sang-Won Um, Gee Young Suh, Man Pyo Chung, O Jung Kwon, Hojoong Kim, and Jhingook Kim.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg.. 2012 Jul 1;144(1):217-22.

ObjectivesTo investigate the role of bronchoscopic intervention in the management of postoperative tracheobronchial stenosis, a retrospective study was performed at a tertiary referral hospital.MethodsThirty patients who underwent 106 bronchoscopic interventions between January 2000 and July 2010, including ballooning, bouginage, Nd:YAG laser resection, and stent insertion, were included and followed up for a median of 34 months.ResultsSilicone stents were required in 19 of 30 patients (63%) to maintain airway patency. Bronchoscopic intervention provided improvement of dyspnea in 97% of the patients. After airway stabilization, the stents were removed successfully in 7 of 19 patients (37%) a median of 7 months after insertion. In 3 patients (10%), the intervention failed to widen the airway. There were no procedure-related deaths or cases of pneumonia, although additional interventions were needed in 9 patients (30%) within 30 days. Stent-related late complications (70%), such as restenosis (43%), overgrowth of granulation tissue (33%), stent migration (32%), mucostasis (30%), and malacia after stent removal (16%), were controllable at follow-up bronchoscopy.ConclusionsBronchoscopic intervention could be a useful treatment modality for patients with postoperative tracheobronchial stenosis when surgery is not feasible.Copyright © 2012 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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