We report on a 37-year-old female patient who was first seen on account of a progressive dyspnea of 18 month's duration. Admission diagnosis was bronchial asthma. Over the past seven years, the patient has had seven pneumonia episodes involving mainly the lingular segment. Seventeen years prior to admission (1982) she was orally intubated for 15 days due to meningococcus meningitis and coma. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed marked widening of the carina and stenosis of the main bronchi, confirmed by virtual bronchoscopy. The stenosis was shorter and more severe to the right side (1 cm) and longer and less severe on the left side (2 cm). The patient was submitted to carina resection and anastomosis of the right mainstem bronchus to the trachea and the left main bronchus to the bronchus intermedius. Fifteen months after surgery the patient shows good clinical, radiological and functional evolution.
Carinal stenosis; Mainstem bronchus stenosis; Carinal reconstruction
