Bronchial stump reinforcement with an azygous vein flap

doi:10.1186/1749-8090-4-22

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Volume 4

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Al-Mufarrej F
Margolis M
Strother E
Tempesta B
Gharagozloo F

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Margolis M
Strother E
Tempesta B
Gharagozloo F
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Letters to the Editor

Bronchial stump reinforcement with an azygous vein flap

Faisal Al-Mufarrej¹^,3 , Marc Margolis¹^,2 , Eric Strother¹ , Barbara Tempesta² and Farid Gharagozloo¹^,2

¹The George Washington University Medical Center, Department of Surgery, 2300 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20037, USA

²Washington Institute of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 2175 K Street NW, Washington DC 20037, USA

³Department of Surgery, Division of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery George Washington Medical Faculty Associates 2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2009, 4:22doi:10.1186/1749-8090-4-22


Published:	28 May 2009

Abstract

Bronchial stump reinforcement has been shown to significantly reduce the incidence of bronchopleural fistulas. Various coverage techniques have been described in the literature. While the azygous vein flap is an easy, safe and effective reinforcement option for right-sided bronchial stumps, the flap is not widely adopted, with little mention in the literature, partly due to surgeons' uneasiness with the technique. In this report, we describe an easy-to-adopt approach to azygous vein bronchial reinforcement.