Usefulness of intraoperative bronchoscopy during surgical repair of a congenital cardiac anomaly with possible airway obstruction: three cases report

Compression of the airway is relatively common in pediatric patients, although it is often an unrecognized complication of congenital cardiac and aortic arch anomalies. Aortopexy has been established as a surgical treatment for tracheobronchial obstruction associated with vascular anomaly, aortic arch anomaly, esophageal atresia, and tracheoesophageal fistula. The tissue-to-tissue arch repair technique could result in severe airway complication such as compression of the left main bronchus which was not a problem before the correction. We report three cases of corrective open heart surgery monitored by intraoperative bronchoscopy performed during prebypass, and performed immediately before weaning from bypass, to evaluate tracheobronchial obstruction caused by congenital, complex cardiac anomalies in the operating room.