Bronchial transection: delayed diagnosis and successful repair.

ABSTRACT

Traumatic bronchial transection is usually recognized and repaired immediately after injury. Bronchial transection has a variety of clinical presentations due to air leak into the pleural cavity and it is very rare to have total absence of air leak from the transected bronchus at presentation. We present one such case of main right bronchus injury with total absence of initial clinical signs and symptoms, leading to a delay in the diagnosis. However, the surgical repair eight months after injury showed excellent recovery of the chronically collapsed lung.