Résumé
Objective To analyze the clinical and anatomic characteristics of bridging bronchus (BB) malformation in children,and to explore its diagnostic strategy,treatment and risk factors.Methods A retrospective study was performed in 23 pediatric patients with BB who were admitted to Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center form May 2010 to October 2016.All their clinical features,imaging examination,treatment and prognosis were reviewed and analyzed.Results (1) Among the 23 patients with BB,15 were males and 8 were females.The age range of onset was 0 to 4 years old with a median age of 3.17 months.(2)The main clinical manifestations were cough (23/23 cases,100.0％),recurrent wheezing (20/23 cases,87.0％),cyanosis (8/23 cases,34.8％) and feeding diffficulty/slow body weight growth (6/23 cases,24.6％).(3) There were 17 cases of type Ⅰ and 4 cases of type Ⅱ according to Wells,and the other 2 cases were anterior BB.There were 2 cases with atypical anatomical morphology in type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ respectively.(4) Twenty-one cases were associated with bronchial stenosis in which the origin of left main bronchus complicated with BB stenosis was the most common(5 cases).Bronchoscopy revealed bronchomalacia in 5 of the 16 patients.Sixteen patients associated with cardiac or vascular anomalies,11 of whom were compound anomalies,and the most common type was sling left pulmonary artery (SLPA) (12 cases).(5) Nine of 12 patients with SLPA received surgical management,ages ranging from 1 month to 8 years old.The respiratory symptoms remitted gradually or disappeared from 4 to 17 months after surgical management.Two died and one has been lost to follow-up among the remaining 3 patients with SLPA.Conclusions BB is a rare tracheobronchial malformation that is often associated with stenosis or bronchomalacia,and cardiac or vascular anomalies.The severity of the disease mainly depends on whether there is airway stenosis or malacia and its extent.The definitive diagnosis of BB requires the combination of different imaging modalities.The combination with simple SLPA could get better curative effect.
Résumé
Objective To explore the clinical diagnosis and treatment of pediatric bridging bronchus deformity and brid-ging bronchus with pulmonary artery sling. Methods The clinical data of the 21 cases of diagnosed bronchial bridge deformity and bronchial bridge with pulmonary artery sling, the imaging findings of all the echocardiography, MSCT chest scan, enhanced CT and reconstructive image were retrospectively analyzed. Results In 21 cases, 10 were diagnosed as bronchial bridge only, among which three cases had other types of congenital heart disease;11 cases were diagnosed of pulmonary artery sling with pulmonary artery sling, among which 8 cases had other types of congenital heart disease;their average age of the 8 cases were all younger than 2 years old, except one case;most of them had the symptoms of recurrent respiratory tract infections and parox-ysmal dyspnea. According to Wells, bronchial bridge was divided into type I and typeⅡ;15 cases were type I, 6 cases were typeⅡ, 10 patients with bronchial bridge only were all type I, 5 cases of typeⅡwere associated with pulmonary artery sling. All of the 6 cases were diagnosed as typeⅡassociated with pulmonary artery sling. Conclusions Infants and young children with clini-cal recurrent respiratory tract infections should be considered the possibility of bronchus bridge deformity, and should be paid more attention to the possibility of pulmonary artery sling. MSCT plain chest scan, enhanced CT and airway reconstructive im-age are the important ways to diagnose the disease.
Résumé
Pulmonary artery sling with bridging bronchus is not only rare but also difficult to diagnose unless specially sought. When young infant suffers from prolonged or recurrent wheezing, possibility of underlying anomalies of the tracheobronchial trees or great vessels should be considered, even though bronchiolitis and gastroesophageal reflux are the most common causes. We experienced four cases of pulmonary artery sling with bridging bronchus who presented with dyspnea and recurrent wheezing since infancy. Diagnosis was made using bronchoscopy, three dimensional computed tomography, echocardiography and angiography. Bridging bronchus of three patients (case 1, 2, 3) correspond to type IIA and one patient (case 4) to type IIB by Wells classification. Bronchoscopic examinations on 3 patients showed segmental bronchomalacia and near complete obstruction of bronchus by the posterior left pulmonary artery. These congenital bronchial anormalies should be included in differential diagnosis in pediatric patients with unexplained persistent and recurrent wheezing, or emphysema of unknown etiology on plain chest X-ray.