[Closed tracheal injury--surgical or anesthesiologic-and-resuscitative problem]

Closed chest injury with rupture of the trachea and main bronchi is a rare and extremely life-threatening pathology. In suspected tracheal injury, as well as in severe closed chest injury with the gas syndrome, diagnostic tracheobronchoscopy with possible intubation is indicated in order to isolate the airway lumen from the paratracheal space. Tracheal intubation through a fibrobronchoscope should be considered to be the first aid. Tracheostomy is not the operation of choice and it is indicated only when there is no available technology or experience in intubating the airways under endoscopic guidance. Most small tracheal ruptures in closed chest injury, as well as those of iatrogenic postintubational genesis, may be medically eliminated. A surgeon jointly with an anesthetist and a bronchological endoscopist should determine indications for the operation. The operation should be performed as early as possible. It should be started from the intubation of the airways and the insertion of the end of an intubational tube caudally the rupture. When the breathing circuit is depressurized, all alternative gas exchange maintenance techniques available at an anesthetist's disposal, including high-frequency artificial ventilation and a shunt-breathing system, are indicated, which should provide a patient's safety and surgical comfort.