[Post-intubation tracheal stenosis].

Post intubation tracheal stenosis (STPI) is a rare but serious complication of tracheal intubation and/or tracheotomy. The epidemiology has changed over the last twenty years. The diagnosis is sometimes difficult to establish on clinical grounds alone. Flexible bronchoscopy is often necessary to confirm the diagnosis and to influence treatment. The ideal curative treatment is surgical resection of the stenosis with end-to-end tracheal anastomosis. In patients presenting with definitive or transitory contraindications to this treatment there is a place for interventional endoscopy. Rigid bronchoscopy enables mechanical dilatation of the STPI which can be associated with Nd-Yag laser ortracheal endoprostheses. In certain cases interventional bronchoscopy may be curative. However in all cases the management of such lesions remains multi-disciplinary involving pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons, otolaryngologists and anaesthetists.