Airway fibroepithelial polyposis

Abstract

Fibroepithelial polyps are benign lesions, frequently found in the skin and genitourinary tract. Airway involvement is rare, and few case reports have been published. Our patient was a 79 y.o. male smoker, who was referred to us with a 3-month history of dry cough. At physical examination, the patient looked well, but a chest CT showed a 6-mm polyp lesion in his trachea. A flexible bronchoscopy confirmed this lesion, and forceps biopsies were performed. Argon plasma coagulation was used to completely resect and treat the lesion. Pathological analysis revealed a fibroepithelial polyp (FP). The aim of this manuscript is to report a case of FP with bronchoscopic management and to review the current literature about this condition.

Keywords: Argon plasma coagulation; Benign airway lesion; Bronchoscopy; Fibroepithelial polyp; Trachea.

Fig. 1

Chest CT showed a 6mm polypoid lesion at the right lateral aspect of the proximal trachea.

Fig. 2

White light videobronchoscopy revealed a polypoid lesion with withish pink mucosa.

Fig. 3

a) Scanning photograph of sagittal section of polyp showing a long stalk and marked papillary or finger-like projections of nodule (H & E stain, × 2). Low-power and high-power photomicrographs shows that polyp consists of fibrovascular stroma with scattered lymphocytes, plasma cells and erythrocytes and lined by normal respiratory epithelium with ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelia and stratified squamous epithelia (H & E stain, × 40, Fig. 3a; x20, Fig. 3b; x 10 Fig. 3c).