Original article
English
Mustafa Elburjo, Eid Abdulgani
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Al-Jala Hospital, Al-Arab Medical University, Benghazi, Libya
JMJ Vol.8, No.2 (Summer) 2008:132-135
Abstract
Background: Bronchiectasis is an irreversible bronchial dilatation due to chronic lung disease. Many authors investigated it over the years looking into its causes and methods of management and opinions with varying and some sometimes-contradicting results. Objective: Retrospective study to evaluate our methods of management and to know the different causes of the disease in our patients. Methods and patients: The medical records of 57 patients were studied. The period of study from January 1988 to December 2000 at Al-Jala Hospital, Benghazi, Libya.
Results: There were 28 females and 29 males with age range from 3-55 years. There were forty eight patients below the age of 30 years. Productive cough was the main presenting symptom. One patient presented with massive haemoptysis. All patients were investigated with routine blood tests, sputum analysis, plain chest X-ray, bronchography and later on the series with conventional CT scan. Bilateral disease detected in 21 patients. Twenty three patients had the disease on right and 14 patients had it on the left side. The causes found: two patients with Kartagner`s, tuberculosis in two, right sided anatomical anomaly in one, foreign body in two, allergy in three patients. Chronic recurrent chest infection in the rest of the patients. Lobectomies were done in seventeen and pneumonectomies in three patients. There were no mortalities. Bronchopleural fistula developed in one patient. Follow up of these patients did not show any major complications. Conclusion: CT scan of the chest is the gold standard investigation for bronchiectasis. The disease is a very crippling one and should be approached with cooperation of almost all the medical staff in the hospital. The selection of the cases for surgery is mandatory to avoid the morbidities and mortalities reported by many authors . Better future knowledge of the disease may improve its management.
Keywords: Bronchiectasis , Surgery, Benghazi.
Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1472