Lung resections in bronchiectasis due to lipoid pneumonia: a custom-design approach.

Objective: To see the effect of "custom-designed" surgical resection of some severely damaged parts of the lungs in children with bronchiectasis caused by forced feeding of children early in their lives with animal fat "ghee".

Design: All children with bronchiectasis--post lipoid pneumonia--who failed to respond to medical treatment had surgical removal of most affected parts of their lungs.

Settings: Asir Central Hospital Abha, a referral hospital in Asir region of Saudi Arabia and a Teaching Hospital for College of Medicine and Health Sciences, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia.

Subjects: Six children aged between seven and 12 years with lipoid bronchiectasis were referred to paediatric surgical service for surgical treatment.

Results: There was no surgical mortality. Apart from mild cough, all the pre-operative symptoms of the children disappeared. Two children died more than six months post-operatively due to the extent of the original disease.

Conclusion: Surgical resection designed to remove the most affected parts of the lungs in diffuse-type bronchiectasis is recommended when there is failure of medical treatment.