Estenosis traqueal sintomática post intubación: análisis espirométrico pre y post dilatación terapéutica

introduction: tracheal stenosis (ts) is a complication of endotracheal intubation or tracheostomy. rigid endoscopic dilatation (red) is the initial treatment in symptomatic ts. usually these patients have spirometric results that suggest such alteration: flat;tening of the flow-volume curve (fvc), either in the espiratory, the inspiratory or both curves. also, quantitative indexes among different spirometric values are correlated suggesting the presence of ts. objectives: to assess spirometric characteristics in patients who suffer from symptomatic ts due to airway intubation, before and after therapeutic red. materials and methods: all red procedures in patients with symptomatic ts performed between november 2006 and march 2009 were included in the analysis. all included patients should have a spirometry performed before and after tracheal dilatation. forced expiratory volume in 1st second (fev1), peak expiratory flow rate (pefr), fev1/pefr index and fvc morphology were taken into consideration. results: twenty five ed were performed in 15 patients with ts. an increase in fev1 (total and %) and pefr (total and %) and a decrease in fev1/pefr index were obser;ved in the post-dilatation values. the fvc showed an improvement in its morphology through a larger area under the curve because of less flattening in one or both curves. conclusions: pre-dilatation spirometry confirmed ts diagnosis using fev1, pefr and its index (quantitative analysis) and by the morphology of the fvc (visual analysis). post-dilatation spirometry allowed the documentation of ts improvement through both kinds of parameters, in agreement with the improvement of the luminal diameter seen endoscopically