Kunisaki Shaun M, Fauza Dario O, Nemes Luanne P, Barnewolt Carol E, Estroff Judy A, Kozakewich Harry P, Jennings Russell W
Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
J Pediatr Surg. 2006 Jan;41(1):61-5; discussion 61-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2005.10.082.
This study was aimed at determining whether different congenital lung masses represent diverse manifestations of a single developmental abnormality associated with fetal airway obstruction.
We conducted a 3-year retrospective review of patients who underwent surgical resection of a prenatally diagnosed lung mass. Prenatal imaging was used to define mass position and its effect on adjacent organs. Lung specimens were examined through careful full-specimen microdissections, as well as by plain and contrast roentgenograms.
Twenty-five patients underwent lung resection during this study period. Based on the final pathology reports, 56% were congenital cystic adenomatoid malformations, 12% were congenital lobar emphysemas, 8% were bronchopulmonary sequestrations, and 24% had features of both cystic adenomatoid malformation and bronchopulmonary sequestrations. No bronchogenic cysts were present in this series. Overall, bronchial atresia was identified in 77% of the examined specimens (n = 22) and was associated with all types of lung malformations.
Bronchial atresia is a common, unrecognized component of prenatally diagnosed congenital cystic adenomatoid malformations, bronchopulmonary sequestrations, congenital lobar emphysemas, and lesions of mixed pathology. Most congenital lung masses may be part of a spectrum of anomalies linked to obstruction of the developing fetal airway as an underlying component in their pathogenesis.
