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Original Articles: General Thoracic

Invited Commentary

Department of Surgery, All Children's Hospital/John's Hopkins Medicine, 603 7th St S, Ste 450, St. Petersburg, FL 33701

(Email: jaqmd{at}mac.com).

Dr Speggiorin and colleagues [1] from the Tracheal Service at Great Ormond Street present a series of 14 patients to answer the question of "Do tracheas grow after slide tracheoplasty?" In sharing their experience and expertise, this study describes their follow-up methodology and demonstrates positive tracheal growth over 24 months postoperatively.

This is a retrospective study and the number of patients is small, which was a result of strict trial entry criteria and rarity of disease. Nevertheless, it quantifies airway growth after surgical reconstruction and confirms what is generally felt to be the case [2]. They utilized bronchography to obtain serial objective airway measurements. The technique and attendant risk or benefits of bronchography, uncommonly utilized today, is discussed in the paper. The data support tracheal balloon dilation as a useful adjunct in achieving positive growth in very small diameter airways.

The paper is well written and concise. The results are excellent in a very high-risk subset of patients. The information is valuable for the caregivers in this field as well as for parents of these children who often face very life threatening clinical situations.

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1. Speggiorin S, Gilbert TW, Broadhead M, Roebuck DJ, McLaren CA, Elliott MJ. Do tracheas grow after slide tracheoplasty? Ann Thorac Surg 2012;93:1083-1087.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Grillo HC, Wright CD, Vlahakes GJ, MacGillivray TE. Management of congenital tracheal stenosis by means of slide tracheoplasty or resection and reconstruction, with long-term follow-up of growth after slide tracheoplasty J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2002;123:145-152.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): James Quintessenza Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Quintessenza, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Quintessenza, J. Related Collections Trachea and bronchi Related Article