Idiopathic and symptomatic plastic bronchitis in childhood. A report of three cases and review of the literature.

During a one-year period we could observe 3 children with the rare disease of plastic bronchitis. Two of them showed a symptomatic form, one with constrictive pericarditis, the other with bronchial asthma as primary diseases. No underlying disease could be found in the third case. Bronchial casts had to be extracted during endoscopy in all children. No relapse occurred after 2-3 years. Reviewing the literature, 37 cases of plastic bronchitis in childhood could be found, most of them had been reported before 1954.