Statistical survey of tracheobronchoplasty in Japan

In a survey of 142 hospitals in Japan, 1562 operations involving tracheobronchoplasty, 565 involving tracheoplasty, and 992 involving bronchoplasty were found to have been done from 1954 to 1984. The number of operations showed a steep increase from 1965 and reached more than 200 a year by 1984. This increase comes from larger numbers of bronchoplasty procedures being performed for lung cancer (58.8% in toto) and of tracheoplasty procedures for thyroid cancer (9.7% in toto). Fifty-seven operative modes could be classified, in which bronchial anastomosis was most frequent (62.1%), followed in order by tracheal anastomosis (18.0%), and tracheobronchial anastomosis (5.9%). Complications, encountered in 16.9% in toto, resulted in death in 22.3%, with fistula bleeding in all and anastomotic stricture in 47.7%. Anastomotic stricture alone had a higher mortality rate than anastomotic stricture combined with recurrent palsy (p less than 0.01). The tracheal anastomosis mode had a higher complication rate than that of the bronchial anastomosis mode (p less than 0.01). Among the 57 modes, the complication rates were lower than those of each stem mode in the following: suture of the tracheal wall (p less than 0.05), tracheal patch grafting (p less than 0.01), sleeve resection of the right main bronchus (p less than 0.02), and sleeve lobectomy of the right lower lobe (p less than 0.001). Complication rates were higher than those of each stem mode in these procedures: prosthetic replacement of the trachea (p less than 0.001), sleeve resection of the right main bronchus (p less than 0.05), and the montage-type carinal reconstruction (p less than 0.05) modes. The tracheal anastomosis mode was classified into two categories, standard and extensive. The latter showed complication rates higher than the former (p less than 0.01), tracheoplasty (p less than 0.0025), and the tracheal anastomosis stem mode (p less than 0.0025). Complication rates have decreased with time, being 21.8% with the tracheal anastomosis mode and 10.8% with the bronchial anastomosis mode in the past 9 years.