Long-term survival following bronchotomy for polypoid bronchial carcinoid tumours

Objective: Typical bronchial carcinoids are very low grade neuroendocrine n eoplasm of the tracheobronchial tree and have very good results in surgical treatment. Surgical treatment varies from bronchotomy-excision to major re sective procedures. We presented our results of bronchotomy, simple excisio n and long-term follow-up. Methods: In Ataturk Centre for Chest Disease and Chest Surgery, 16 patients with bronchial carcinoid tumour underwent bronc hotomy-excision over a 23-year-period. In all of the cases tumours were in polypoid type. Except these 16 cases 51 patients with bronchial carcinoids underwent operations in the same period. Presenting symptoms were haemoptys is, cough, recurrent pulmonary infection, dyspnea and chest pain. Rigid bro nchoscopies were performed on all of the patients preoperatively for diagno sis of the tumour and to determine the surgical procedure and we performed control bronchoscopies on all of the patients in their follow-up period. Re sults: Patients were checked for periods ranging from 2 to 23 years both ra diologically and bronchoscopically. We did not find any recurrences and dea th related to surgery and morbidity rate were minimal. Conclusion: We think that bronchotomy and simple excision are effective and safe procedures for the treatment of bronchial carcinoid tumours with low morbidity in selecte d cases like polypoid type lesions and have as good a long-term survival ra te as the other surgical treatment methods have. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.