[Diagnosis and surgical treatment of bronchial adenoma]

Twenty one patients with bronchial adenoma, treated surgically in our hospital, include three different neoplasms: carcinoid, cylindroma and mucoepidermoid adenoma. In this series, clinical characteristics were: bronchial obstruction when the tumor protrudes into the lumen and infection, first in the bronchus (bronchitis or bronchiectasis) then in the parenchyma (acute, recurrent or chronic pneumonia, tension abscess). Ball-valve action of the tumor may result in lobar or segmental emphysema. Preoperatively, most of the patients had been misdiagnosed as bronchitis, carcinoma of lung, bronchiectasis or acute tension abscess. In our series, all the patients were alive in a follow up of 2-8 years. Yet one patient is living with local recurrence and distant metastasis. To our experience, pneumonia recurring in the same area of the lung, localized wheezing, with or without endocrine symptoms, lobar or segmental emphysema may suggest bronchial adenoma. Tomography and endoscopy are important for diagnosis. For the treatment, sleeve resection of the main bronchus was done in 2, bronchoplastic lobectomy in 7, lobectomy in 10, and pneumonectomy in 2. Sleeve resection of the main bronchus or bronchoplastic lobectomy is recommended as a reliable procedure for this disease.