Clinical Application of Extraluminal Circumferential suture Ligation for Closure of Bronchial Stump after Pulmonary Resection / 第三军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

This article is to report the result and experience of the clinical application of the extraluminal circumferential-suture ligation to close the bronchial stumps after pulmonary resections. This method was used for 469 times in 400 patients with various diseases including tuberculosis, lung cancer, and chronic suppurative disease with excellent results. After the use of this method, the incidence of the dreadful postoperative complication of broncho-pleural fistula was reduced to only 0.25%, and it never occurred when a main or a large bronchus was involved.It is pointed out that the advantage of this extraluminal circumferential-suture ligation method cannot be overemphasized and its success lies on two crucial steps as follows1. The traditional open method to divide a bronchus is substituted with the new close method, which can avoid spraying the highly infectious bronchial contents into the pleural cavity to cause contamination. Thus the main source of infection is cut off.2. Every stitch of the circumferential suture is done extraluminally without penetrating the whole thickness of the bronchial wall or entering the infections bronchial lumen, which will further minimize the chance of infection.