Intralobar Bronchial Cystic Disease, the "Sequestration Complex" and Cystic Bronchiectasis

¹ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Mount Zion Hospital and University of California School of Medicine

We have presented radiographic, macroscopic, and microscopic evidence of the similarities of the three entities of bronchial cystic disease, the "sequestration" complex, and cystic bronchiectasis. We consider them to be variant forms of a single complex of bronchovascular anomalies. Two cases of cystic bronchiectasis with aortic branch arterial supply have been reviewed from the literature to present a further variation of these associated anomalies.

We feel the term "intralobar sequestration" to be misleading in that it implies an isolation in only this entity of the contained bronchial cysts and/or pulmonary parenchyma, though in actuality they are no more so than in simple intralobar bronchial cystic disease. In both conditions the cysts appear to be alterations of one or more of a numerically normal complement of bronchi, not of accessory bronchi. For these reasons the term "bronchial cystic disease with systemic arterial supply" seems preferable to, and more informative than "the sequestration complex"

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Thus, we suggest that for clarity of meaning and for universal understanding, the proper terms to apply to these entities be, intralobar bronchial cystic disease with systemic arterial supply, and congenital cystic bronchiectasis.