[Bronchocutaneous fistula after treatment for breast cancer: a case report]

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.