Thoracic Tracheoplasty

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health is the West Coast’s premier location for thoracic slide tracheoplasty.

Thoracic slide tracheoplasty is a surgical procedure that can restore normal breathing to children born with various forms of tracheal narrowing, also known as stenosis. One common type of stenosis is called complete tracheal rings. The horseshoe shape of the pieces of cartilage in a normal trachea keep it open while also allowing it to expand during breathing. Patients with complete tracheal rings have narrow and fully circular pieces of cartilage that do not expand, a condition that can cause severe respiratory distress. Slide tracheoplasty bridges and expands the upper and lower trachea, restoring tracheal function and breathing.

Because children born with tracheal stenosis frequently also have syndromes and associated lung and heart abnormalities, it is essential to deploy the expertise of both an otolaryngologist and a cardiothoracic surgeon in their treatment. The close collaboration between those two exceptional surgical teams at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford makes ours one of the premiere slide tracheoplasty programs.