Abstract
: Despite all improvements in thoracic surgery over the last decades, chronic bronchopleural fistulas still pose a challenging disease to treat. The Abruzzini technique is often considered one of the last viable options to manage this undesirable complication. Unfortunately, surgical trainees are not regularly exposed to this procedure during their training since it is not routinely performed. Moreover, available educational resources are particularly restricted to text descriptions or illustrations. Those factors lead to insufficient training of this technique, which is fundamental to the thoracic surgery practice. In this article, we present a step-by-step description of the Abruzzini technique using an intraoperative video recorded with a rigid endoscope. This device allows improved teaching and guidance for every trainee in the operating room and grants further review for educational purposes after the surgery. The media used in the present description was collected from a surgery performed to treat a large right bronchopleural fistula, which was a result of a lung resection secondary to aspergilloma. In this case, an approach through the pleural cavity would not be feasible due to several previous surgeries, so a transsternal approach was planned. The bronchus was successfully closed and the patient did not present any signs of recurrence, with over 1 year of follow-up.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call