• Mario Nosotti, Ugo Cioffi, Matilde De Simone, Paolo Mendogni, Alessandro Palleschi, Lorenzo Rosso, Michele M Ciulla, and Luigi Santambrogio.
• Department of Surgery-Thoracic and Transplant Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italy. mario.nosotti@unimi.it
• J Cardiothorac Surg. 2009 Jul 24; 4: 38.

AbstractBronchopleural fistula following pneumonectomy is a serious and frightening complication in chest surgery with a high mortality rate. The possibility of curing this complication using a conservative treatment is extremely poor. Below we describe a case of a patient affected by left pleural empyema due to a postpneumonectomy bronchopleural fistula. The patient had previously undergone an aortic prosthesis implantation. He was successfully treated using omental pedicle in order to cover the bronchial stump, to fill the pleural space and to protect the aortic prosthesis. He also underwent thoracoplasty to collapse the residual pleural space. The postoperative course was uneventful. During the follow-up, after thirty months, the patient was asymptomatic, and no recurrence of the fistula was present.

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