Successful treatment of a life-threatening air leakage, complicating severe abdominal sepsis, with a one-way endobronchial valve.

A 41-year-old woman had a jeopardizing air leak from an alveolar-pleural and transdiaphragmatic fistula with pulmonary cavitation, secondary to a severe postoperative abdominal sepsis. Her condition dramatically improved by introduction, in the lower bronchus, of a one-way endobronchial valve, leading to immediate cessation of air leakage and removal of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and thus avoiding a lower left lobectomy with myoplasty. Furthermore, removal of the valve nine weeks later led to near-complete recovery of the left lower lobe.