Background: In this study, we investigated patients of pulmonary sequestration who underwent surgery based on their clinical, radiological and surgical features with the complications.

Methods: Between January 2003 and November 2011, 11 patients with pulmonary sequestration (7 males, 4 females; mean age 36.1 years; range 2 to 68 years) who were operated in our clinic were included. The patients were evaluated based on their demographical features, complaints, radiological features, the type of the operation performed and the complications.

Results: The most commonly experienced complaints were cough (n=8) and hemoptysis (n=5). The time from the first complaint to the diagnosis ranged from 1 month to 20 years. Four patients preoperatively underwent computed tomographic angiographic examination to delineate the systemic vascular anatomy. Ten patients had intralobar sequestrations, while one had extralobar sequestration. Surgical intervention was performed through posterolateral thoracotomy in all the patients (right in 7 and left in 4). Seven patients underwent lobectomy, three underwent segmentectomy and one underwent left pneumonectomy. In the postoperative period, two patients had prolonged air leakage, one patient had atelectasis and one had bronchopleural fistula. No mortality was seen.

Conclusion: Pulmonary sequestration can exhibit itself in a wide spectrum of presentations varying from a radiological mass lesion appearance to pneumonic infiltration. In suspected patients, even if this cannot be demonstrated in the preoperative period, systemic arterial blood flow should be searched for during surgical exploration and dissection should be started from this point to prevent massive bleeding.

Keywords : Pulmonary sequestration; recurrent pneumonia; surgery