Tracheobronchial injury due to blunt chest trauma

Tracheobronchial avulsion resulting from blunt trauma is a very rare and serious condition, mostly due to high-speed traffic crashes. In this article, we briefly report the case of an 18-year-old man who was injured in a car accident and because of massive persistent air leakage (despite appropriate chest tube drainage), deemed to have a deep tracheobronchial injury. Due to a rapid drop in the patient's O(2) saturation, he underwent an anterolateral thoracotomy. Endotracheal intubation was performed under direct visualization. The right mainstem bronchus was disrupted from the carina with a 1.5-cm stump remaining on the carina, and the remainder was crushed to the origin of the right superior lobe bronchus. Hence, a right superior lobectomy was performed and the postoperative course was uneventful.