Single centre experience with bronchial healing after lung transplantation: A review of 555 anastomoses

Since the beginning of our transplant programme in 1987 we used various techniques of bronchial anastomosis including continuous and interrupted sutures, in addition a pedicled graft as a bronchial wrap using omentum, pericardium or intercostal muscle. Since the early nineties we adopted a technique that included: i) Short donor bronchus one cartilaginous ring proximal to the upper lobe origin ii) End-to-end anastomosis by continuous suture of membranous bronchus and interrupted figure-of-eight suture of the cartilaginous bronchus using non absorbable sutures avoiding telescoping iii) Apposition of peribronchial tissue over the anastomoses.