Abstract
A 49 year-old female was admitted on March 20, 1979 with a chief complaint of loud cough, purulent sputum and a constant “rattle in the throat”. Chest roentgenogram showed prominent dilatation of trachea and main bronchi. The width of the trachea was larger than that of the vertebral column. The bronchogram showed unusually wide trachea and left main bronchus and outlines of sac-like recesses. The largest widths of the trachea, right and left bronchi were 50, 15 and 30mm. The bronchoscopic examination showed an enormous tracheal lumen and sacular dilatation of the wall.
Generally, tracheobronchiomegaly has been ascribed to a congenital defect of elastic and muscle fibers of the trachoeobrnchial tree by most authors. But in our case, in addition to this, chronic airway infection was thought to be another important etiologic cause.
