[A case of right intermediate bronchial stenosis due to an injury eighteen years before]

A 20 year-old man was admitted to our hospital suffering from fever and cough due to bronchiectasis. He had been injured in automobile accident 18 years before. The subsequent bronchography revealed a marked stricture of the right intermediate bronchus with post-stenotic bronchiectasis. Right middle and lower lobectomy was performed. Postoperatively, pneumonia improved, and pulmonary function was preserved. There is no agreement on criteria indicating the need for bronchial reconstruction in cases like this, because evaluation is difficult whether inflammatory changes in the lobes intending to the reimplant may be reversible. In our case, we considered that recurrent pneumonia and bronchiectatic changes of the right lower lobe were contra-indications to bronchial reconstruction.