[Cicatricial stenoses of the trachea. Etiological and therapeutic aspects. Apropos of thirty operated patients].

From January 1984 to march 1990, we performed 30 tracheal resections for post-intubation or post-tracheostomy inflammatory stenosis. After discussing the mechanism and the pathology of the tracheal lesions, we emphasise the importance of careful history taking when evaluating a patient with tracheal stenosis in order to distinguish patients with normal lungs (who needed respiratory resuscitation for acute and reversible respiratory failure) from patients with compromised lungs (patients with chronic pulmonary disease who needed respiratory resuscitation for acute respiratory failure). When selection of the patients was good and evaluation careful, tracheal resection was rater easy, with uneventful postoperative course and good long-term results.