Successful sleeve resection of bronchial carcinoid under veno-venous ECMO

Here, we report a case of a bronchial tumor in the proximal left mainstem bronchus in a 19-year-old male. Diagnosis of the tumor was typical carcinoid, which was established by bronchoscopic biopsy preoperatively. Under femoral veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), the patient underwent left mainstem bronchus sleeve resection through median sternotomy. The surgical resection margins were confirmed to be tumor-free on frozen section and all lymph nodes were free of tumor. This report describes a carcinoid in the proximal mainstem bronchus which was successfully resected without lobectomy or pneumonectomy and concludes that sleeve resection under extracorporeal membrane oxygenation should be considered in the surgical treatment of mainstem bronchial carcinoid.