One of the rare benign tumours of the bronchus is Leiomyoma. Localized surgical resection of these tumours are challenging because of its location. A 36 year old gentleman presented with such a tumour in the left upper lobe bronchus. The tumour was removed successfully through a thoracotomy and sleeve resection of the left upper lobe bronchus. The post operative period was uneventful. A follow-up bronchoscopy at 2 years revealed no evidence of recurrence. Introduction Endo bronchial leiomyoma are very rare benign tumours. They account for about 2% of benign tumours of the lower respiratory tract.1 They are thought to arise from the smooth muscle of the bronchus.2 Surgical resection is the main stay of treatment for such tumours though literature has revealed treatment by endoscopic resection or laser treatment. Lung resection has been the treatment of choice from most cases reported in the past. We report one such case where the tumour which was completely occluding the left upper lobe at its origin close to the left main bronchus. The tumour was removed by performing a sleeve lobectomy of the left upper lobe along with a cuff of the left main stem where the bronchus arose. To our knowledge we are not aware of such an extensive resection of the tumour preserving the lung parenchyma that has been mentioned in the literature before. Case Report A 36 year old man of Indian origin presented with history of fever, dyspnoea and generalized malaise. Initial chest X-ray (Fig 1 A) revealed collapse of left upper zone of lung. He was empirically treated with antibiotic with which his symptoms have improved. A CT scan thorax (Fig 1 B) appeared to show a soft tissue mass arising from the left upper lobe bronchus. This was confirmed at bronchoscopy which revealed a soft tissue mass in the left upper lobe bronchus. A biopsy taken at that time showed the possibility of tumour to be of smooth muscle origin.
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