[Diagnosis and surgical treatment of pulmonary sequestration]

Between Jan. 1988 and Jan. 2003 4 patients (3 male, 1 female, mean age of 20 years) were operated on for lung sequestration. Sequestration was intralobar in 3 cases and extralobar in 1 case. The abnormality was discovered by chance in 1 patient. The most frequent clinical manifestation was those of recurrent bronchopneumonia. X-ray films of the chest showed an apparently benign, posterobasal image in 80% of the cases. Arteriography was performed in 1 patient and revealed an abnormal systemic artery. Computerized tomography imaging with i.v. contrast confirmed the diagnosis in 3 patients. The intralobar type of sequestration was treated by lobectomy and polysegmental resection--S7-12, and the extralobar type--by sequestrectomy. The operative mortality and the morbidity rate were nil. The mean stay in hospital was 10 days. The long-term postoperative results are considered excellent.