Stenting treatment is a minimally traumatic and effective alternative to surgical repair for iatrogenic tracheobronchial lesion

Iatrogenic tracheobronchial injuries are rare but lifethreatening events, most frequently due to complication of endotracheal intubation or percutaneous tracheostomy. Their incidence is low (0.005–0.2% after double lumen or emergency single lumen intubation and up to 0.7% after percutaneous tracheostomy), but related mortality can be high and has been generally reported between 11% and 42% (1-5). Surgical repair has been considered the treatment of choice for a long time. More recently, along with the progressive evolution of interventional bronchoscopy, minimally invasive endoscopic treatment has gained diffusion as an effective alternative.