Bridging bronchus - a rare cause of recurrent wheezy bronchitis

Abstract

Background: Wheezing is a common symptom in infants and toddlers. Usually it occurs due to viral infection of the lower airways and no further diagnostic procedures are necessary. However in rare cases, other reasons such as anatomical malformation have to be considered.Case presentation: We report about an infant with recurrent episodes of wheezy bronchitis, which persisted despite adequate therapy. Bronchoscopy and computed tomography of the lung with three-dimensional reconstruction revealed a rare bronchial branching anomaly - the so called " bridging bronchus" . In contrast to previous case reports, this infant showed no additional malformations, which seems to be important for the prognosis.Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge this is the first report about a patient with a bridging bronchus in its " original form" without associated anomalies of the trachea-bronchial system or other organs. © 2012 Schnabel et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.