Vascular compression of the left bronchus in a patient with funnel chest

Abstract

We present a case of 5 year-old female with funnel chest, by which cardiovascular structures were displaced into the left chest cavity. This caused left bronchial compression by the pulmonary artery and the descending aorta, for which an external stenting was successfully performed. The patient had features suggestive of skeletal dysplasia with tracheobronchial malacia. One possible mechanism of vascular compression could be an association of fragility of the thoracic cavity and inspiratory dyspnea, causing thoracic deformity.

Congenital bronchial stenosis: a case report of an unusual diagnosis and its management

“…Additionally, our patient had pectus excavatum. The association between chest deformities and bronchial stenosis is described in the literature (14)(15)(16). It has been suggested that the costosternal retraction can be the consequence of the increased intrathoracic pressure during expiration to overcome the airway obstruction due to the CBS ( 14) and usually the deeper impression corresponds to the side of the CBS.…”

“…However, it is questionable whether pectus excavatum is solely due to CBS. CBS, in fact, can be also caused by an abnormal thoracic configuration (17) due to complex mechanisms of vascular compression (15). Based on the clinical presentation, it could be useful to perform a full genotyping as suggested by some Authors (1), along with further diagnostic work-up, especially in the presence of features suggesting skeletal dysplasia (18).…”