[Major respiratory tract traumas]

Between 1988 and 2000 a total of 33 patients with traumatic tracheobronchial lesions were diagnosed and treated. The trauma was penetrating in 7 (stab and gun-shot), blunt in 10 (car accidents, compression and falling from heights) and iatrogenic in 16 of them (postintubational--15, after foreign body extraction--1). The main clinical and radiological features were subcutaneous emphysema, hemoptysis, respiratory insufficiency, pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax. The diagnosis was confirmed in all patients by early fiberoptic bronchoscopy. "Watch and see" tactics with massive antibiotics therapy was followed in 4 (12%) patients. A surgical treatment was carried out in 29 (88%) patients as follows: simple repair--19 (58%), left pneumonectomy--2 (6%), tracheal resection and anastomosis "end to end"--2 (6%), tracheostomy--1 (3%), thoracocenthesis and drainage--3 (9%) and cervical mediastinotomy--2 (6%). The operative mortality was 9%. The cause of death in these 3 patients were associated brain and spinal cord injuries. In the rest of patients the early and long-term postoperative results were considered very good.