Assessment of Mucociliary Clearance in Patients with Tracheobronchoplasty Using Radioaerosol

resect and reconstruct safely every segment of the res piratory tract by end-to-end anastomosis. This tech nique, that is, tracheobronchoplasty or tracheobron chial reconstruction, preserves ipsilateral pulmonary parenchyma. Since tracheobronchoplasty for a patient with lung cancer was first described as sleeve lobectomy by Price-Thomas et al. (1,2), this technique has been performed on patients with lung cancers which infiltrate into the trachea or the large bronchus. Most of the patients with tracheobronchoplasty lose the cough reaction and are unable to cough up phlegm on their own for a certain period after the operation. They often suffer from respiratory tract complications. Mucociliary transport in the airway is an important mechanism for the elimination of inhaled foreign ma terials and debris. It is well known that mucociliary transport is related to mucus production and to ciliary activity (3). It appears that both of these factors are impaired by this reconstructive surgery. No investiga