ENDOSCOPIC REMOVAL OF LIPOMA OF THE BRONCHUS: Report of Two Cases

BENIGN new growths of the bronchi constitute about 6% of all neoplasms of the tracheobronchial tree. By far the commonest of these is the bronchial adenoma. One of the rarer types of benign neoplasms, as exemplified by the fact that only 12 cases have thus far been reported in the literature, is the pure lipoma. Eight of these tumors were removed endoscopically, the first by Kernan in 1927.¹The remaining cases were reported by Myerson,²Jackson,³Wessler,⁴McGlade,⁵Vinson,⁶Watts,⁷and Whalen.⁸Four cases were detected at autopsy and were reported by Pollak⁹and Honig.¹⁰ The majority of these lipomas were located in the main-stem bronchi and the remaining few in the branch bronchi. No case of multiple bronchial lipomas has been reported, nor any of lipomas that originated in the trachea. Seven of the eight cases in which endoscopic