Surgical treatment of endobronchial leiomyosarcoma with right main bronchus total obstruction: a case report

Endobronchial leiomyosarcoma is an unusual tumor of the respiratory tract. Clinically, patients may present with intermittent coughing, chest pain, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and fever until late in the course of the disease because of total obstruction of the main airway. In this paper, we report the case of a 51-year-old male with endobronchial leiomyosarcoma who presented with acute respiratory distress as a result of total obstruction of the right main bronchus and suffocation after massive hemoptysis. After intraoperative bronchoscopic assessment and bronchotomy, an elongated endobronchial tumor was found that arose from the right middle lobe (RML) bronchus with intraluminal extension upward into the right main bronchus. He underwent RML and right lower lobe (RLL) bilobectomy and had a rapid and uneventful recovery.