[Development of anesthetic technics for resection-anastomosis of the trachea]

A series is reported of 109 patients, 45 +/- 18 yr old, undergoing tracheal sleeve resection. 101 patients had iatrogenic tracheal stenosis, 5 tracheal cylindroma, 2 tracheal cancer and 1 tracheal trauma. 84 patients underwent preoperative laser coagulation to increase the airway internal diameter. Anaesthesia for the sleeve resection was induced by thiopentone, and maintained by an opiate, nitrous oxide and, if necessary, a volatile anesthetic. Patients were intubated, after having been given a muscle relaxant, with either a normal length and diameter tube with a low pressure cuff, or a narrow (internal diameter less than 6 mm) 50 cm long tube with or without a low pressure cuff. Patients with long tubes were ventilated with intermittent positive pressure, and the others with high frequency jet ventilation (HFJV) via a urethral catheter within the endotracheal tube. 20% of the long tubes had to be replaced during surgery because of perforation of the cuff by a tracheal stitch. In all, six patients died, one as a result of a pneumothorax and air embolus due to HFJV. Preoperative photocoagulation reduced the risk of induction and intubation; the choice of endotracheal tube no longer depended on the tracheal diameter, but on the method of ventilation chosen. However, HFJV has tended to be phased out, except for the surgery of lesions close to the carena; it has been replaced by intermittent positive pressure ventilation via long tubes. Because laser photocoagulation can completely cure small stenoses, these patients requiring surgery were those with long stenoses which were difficult to treat.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)