Post intubation tracheal stenosis

Post intubation tracheal stenosis (STPI) is a rare but serious complication of tracheal intubation and/or tracheotomy. The epidemiology has changed ov er the last twenty years. The diagnosis is sometimes difficult to establish on clinical grounds alone. Flexible bronchoscopy is often necessary to con firm the diagnosis and to influence treatment. The ideal curative treatment is surgical resection of the stenosis with end-to-end tracheal anastomosis . In patients presenting with definitive or transitory contraindications to this treatment there is a place for interventional endoscopy. Rigid bronch oscopy enables mechanical dilatation of the STPI which can be associated wi th the Nd-Yag laser ortracheal endoprostheses. In certain cases interventio nal bronchoscopy may be curative. However in all cases the management of su ch lesions remains muti-disciplinary involving pulmonologists, thoraic surg eons, otolayngologists and anaesthetists.