[Invaginated bronchoplasty: wedge resection and sleeve reconstruction]

The purpose of this report is to illustrate a bronchoplastic technique in upper right lobectomy which is equivalent to sleeve resection but allows to preserve the unaffected portion of the bronchial wall. The technique consists in the resection of the infiltrated bronchial wall, sparing the unaffected part The distal bronchial stump is then invaginated into the stem bronchus in such a way that the anastomosis line is located at the highest possible level, ideally where it would be carried out if standard sleeve resection would be performed. The anastomosis is accomplished by U-Shaped, 3-0 vicryl sutures. The major advantage of this procedure is probably due to the preservation of the systemic artery bronchial supply to the distal stump passing through the unaffected bronchial wall; the resulting more vital distal stump may reduce incidence of suture line healing problems.