January 2022 medical image of the month: bronchial obstruction due to pledget in airway following foregut cyst resection

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. A 37-year-old woman complaining of chest pain and cough underwent resection of a mediastinal foregut duplication cyst complicated by a 10-day hospitalization with a prolonged air leak. Seven years later, she presented with worsening cough and shortness of breath, complaining of similar symptoms intermittently in the 7 years between her surgery and presentation. Chest CT showed a hyperattenuating lesion obstructing the medial basal segmental airways, with bronchoscopy revealing suture and a pledget obstructing the medial basal segmental right lower lobe bronchus. The pledget and suture were successfully removed. Repeat bronchoscopy several months later showed no residual airway foreign body, although medial basal subsegmental bronchial stenosis prevented advancement of the bronchoscope distally; this finding correlated with the CT impression of airway stenosis or occlusion in this region on the follow up CT. Bronchogenic cysts result from abnormal lung budding and development of the ventral foregut during the first trimester (1). Many …