Abstract
The objectives of this study were to report cases of tracheal pathologies at the Centre Hospitalier National Universitaire de Fann (CHNU) in Dakar, specify the therapeutic aspects, and compare the observations with data from the literature. This was a single-center, descriptive study focusing on 12 patients over the period from January 2015 to March 2024. The descriptive study was conducted by calculating frequencies and proportions for qualitative variables and calculating means for quantitative variables. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using Microsoft Word and Excel version 16.66.1 software. The mean age was 28.3 years (range: 2-72 years), and the sex ratio was 1.4 in favor of males. Trauma was the most common etiology, with 33.3% of cases attributed to trauma from public road accidents. Fifty percent of patients underwent immediate surgery, 33.3% received conservative treatment alone, and 16.7% had surgery following the failure of conservative treatment. The most common surgical approach was right posterolateral thoracotomy. The most frequently used surgical technique was tracheal fistula repair with and/or without covering plasty (50%). The results of conservative treatment were favorable in 66.7% of cases. Surgical morbidity was 25%, and mortality was 12.5%. Tracheal pathology is almost exclusively treated surgically, with multiple etiologies. Conservative medical management has a higher morbidity rate than surgery.
Key words: Surgery, conservative management, tracheal pathologies, (CHNU) Fann, Dakar.
