| Abstract
| - Of 43 tracheo-bronchial ruptures, 19 patients presented with disruptionof the laryngo-tracheal junction which would appear to be a very specificanatomical lesion. The disruptions were secondary to blunt cervical traumain 11 cases and strangulation in 8 cases. The disruption was complete in 14cases and incomplete in 5. The lesion is very complex and involved theretraction of the lower part of the trachea into the mediastinum (14cases), fracture of the cricoid ring (9 cases), bilateral recurrent nervetears (14 cases), unilateral (4 cases) and retraction of the laryngealmucosa with exposure of the cricoid cartilage in all cases. According tothe complexity of the lesion, the treatment was: laryngo-tracheal resectionand end-to-end anastomosis with treatment of the vocal cord palsy in 13patients; simple end-to-end anastomosis in 4 patients who had an unilateralvocal cord palsy; 2 patients with a partial disruption were treatedmedically with endoscopic stenting and laser photocoagulation. All hadrestoration of airway patency and recovery of voice. The results contrastwith the failures and reoperations reported in the literature and underlinethe necessity of complete evaluation and treatment of these complexlesions.
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