Clinical and bronchoscopic features of endobronchial tuberculosis.

Clinical and bronchoscopic features of endobronchial tuberculosis were retrospectively investigated in 24 patients. A barking cough was the most frequent chief complaint in 50% of patients. The typical apico-subclavian localization of pulmonary tuberculosis in adults was found in only 50% of patients; in one patient the lung fields were clear.

Primary carcinoma of the hypopharynx and cervical esophagus: evolution of surgical therapy.

Carcinoma of the cervical esophagus is invariably fatal because of its advanced stage at presentation. In our surgical division, 167 patients with primary squamous-cell carcinoma of the cervical esophagus were treated over the period between 1973 and June 1992. The tumor was localized in the cervical esophagus in only 37 cases, whereas it also involved the hypopharynx in 112 patients or extended to the cervico-thoracic segment in the remaining 18 subjects.

Microvascular lesions in reflux oesophagitis and Barrett's oesophagus.

In 30 patients with reflux oesophagitis, the mucosal microvessels have been studied by transmission electron microscopy. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that a microvascular injury is involved in reflux oesophagitis, and to clarify if the epithelial metaplasia is correlated with a contemporaneous modification of the microvasculature in Barrett's oesophagus. In squamous epithelium-lined mucosa, signs of microangiopathy were found in all patients and capillaries regularly showed an interrupted, duplicated, or thickened basal lamina.

Endoscopic treatment of bronchopleural fistulas using N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate.

Bronchopleural fistulas represent a serious complication of pulmonary surgery. Surgical treatment of bronchopleural fistulas has a high morbidity and mortality rate. Endoscopic sealing procedures are less invasive and more effective.