[Carcinoid tumors of the bronchi. Our experience of these during the last 10 years, with a review of the literature].

We present our experience with 18 bronchial carcinoids, two of those being of atypical histology. Mean age is 44 years, without sex preponderance. Clinical symptoms are poorly specific, with persistent cough and recurrent pneumonia as most frequent features. Carcinoid syndrome was seen in one patient. In 4 patients, the carcinoid tumor was an incidental finding on routine chest X-Ray film. Lack of pathognomonic clinical signs explains the considerable delay in diagnosis, with a mean of 10 months of clinical evAluation. Radiographic patterns are atelectatic lobe consolidation, a solitary coin lesion or a transparent lung field. All patients were submitted to bronchoscopic evaluation and only two endoscopic explorations remained negative, because of their peripheral localizations. In all other cases, there was a typical appearance of "cherry red adenoma". Mediastinal extension was present in 2 cases, while extrathoracic metastases were never found. Whenever possible, surgical resection was performed (16 cases). Two patients got endoscopic extirpation of their tumor. There is one postoperative hospital death. This study was done to gain a better understanding of clinical, diagnostic and pathologic features of bronchial carcinoid tumors, and their implications in terms of therapy and prognosis. The authors discuss clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of bronchial carcinoids as well as their microscopic appearance and relationship with oat cell carcinoma.