Bridging bronchus - a rare cause of recurrent wheezy bronchitis

doi:10.1186/1471-2431-12-110

BMC Pediatr. 2012; 12: 110.

Published online 2012 July 28. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-12-110

PMCID: PMC3464171

Bridging bronchus - a rare cause of recurrent wheezy bronchitis

Anja Schnabel,¹ Katja Glutig,² and Christian Vogelberg¹

¹Pediatric Department, Technical University of Dresden, Germany; University Hospital, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

²Department of Pediatric Radiology, Technical University of Dresden, Germany; University Hospital, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

Corresponding author.

Anja Schnabel: anja.schnabel/at/uniklinikum-dresden.de; Katja Glutig: katja.glutig/at/uniklinikum-dresden.de; Christian Vogelberg: christian.vogelberg/at/uniklinikum-dresden.de

Received December 12, 2011; Accepted June 29, 2012.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Wheezing is a common symptom in infants and toddlers. Usually it occurs due to viral infection of the lower airways and no further diagnostic procedures are necessary. However in rare cases, other reasons such as anatomical malformation have to be considered.

Case presentation

We report about an infant with recurrent episodes of wheezy bronchitis, which persisted despite adequate therapy. Bronchoscopy and computed tomography of the lung with three-dimensional reconstruction revealed a rare bronchial branching anomaly - the so called “bridging bronchus”. In contrast to previous case reports, this infant showed no additional malformations, which seems to be important for the prognosis.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge this is the first report about a patient with a bridging bronchus in its “original form” without associated anomalies of the trachea-bronchial system or other organs.

Keywords: Congenital airway anomalies, Bronchial branching anomaly, Airway malformation

Articles from BMC Pediatrics are provided here courtesy of
BioMed Central