Conservative surgery for bronchial adenomata

Fifteen patients with bronchial adenomata have undergone surgical treatment and have been followed up for periods of one to 25 years. Management consisted of bronchotomy with local excision in six cases, segmental resection in two, lobectomy in six, and pneumonectomy in one case. One patient who underwent lobectomy subsequently died of an unrelated cause (gastric haemorrhage) in the early postoperative period; of the remaining 14, there have been no cases of recurrence, and all patients have remained sympton-free with normal chest radiographs. These results strongly support a conservative surgical approach where the clinical and histological diagnosis of carcinoid tumour is definite.