Abstract
Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a potentially fatal complication of lung cancer resection surgery that occurs during the healing process of the bronchial stump. However, the vulnerability of the healed surgical wound to overlapping acquired airway destruction has not yet been determined in detail. We herein present a case of fatal BPF following Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus) infection, which occurred 11 years after right upper lobectomy for lung cancer. The findings of the present study suggest that patients with M. abscessus pulmonary disease in which airway destruction is progressing towards the bronchial stump of previous lobectomy should be considered for early completion pneumonectomy to prevent fatal BPF.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-568) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a rare, but potentially fatal complication of lung cancer resection surgery and has a high mortality rate (27.2 - 67 %)
Postoperative BPF can be classified into early and late BPF according to the time of occurrence: the former appears within a month of surgery, and the latter appears after more than one month (Jichen et al, 2009)
BPF was shown to be related to perioperative technical problems, whereas late BPF was related to impaired healing of the bronchial stump (Varoli et al, 1998)
Summary
Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a rare, but potentially fatal complication of lung cancer resection surgery and has a high mortality rate (27.2 - 67 %). M. abscessus pulmonary diseases are rapidly progressive or multiresistant to antimicrobial drugs in many cases, and become intractable, which leads to severe airway destruction (Griffith et al, 2007). We present a case of fatal BPF with empyema following M. abscessus infection, which occurred 11 years after right upper lobectomy for lung cancer.
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