Primary tracheal tumor is a relatively rare disease. Of all cases of primary tracheal tumor, more than 90 % are malignant tumors, such as adenoid cystic carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and tracheal leiomyomas are said to account for approximately 1 % of such lesions [1–3]. Additionally, leiomyomas occurring in the respiratory tract are reported to account for approximately 2 % of all cases of benign lung tumors [4]. Depending on the anatomical site of occurrence, leiomyomas of the respiratory tract can be classified as pulmonary parenchymal or tracheobronchial type. Pulmonary leiomyomas are asymptomatic, and they are often detected via routine health check-up. A preoperative diagnosis is therefore difficult to make, and surgical resection of the tumor is often required to establish a diagnosis. There are also cases of pulmonary metastasizing leiomyoma originating from uterine fibroids [5]. On the contrary, when a tracheobronchial leiomyoma is detected, it is rarely asymptomatic, unlike in this case, and patients often present with coughing, breathing difficulty, bloody sputum, and bronchitis prior to being diagnosed. When a leiomyoma occurs in the trachea in particular, enlargement of the tumor can lead to breathing difficulty and possibly asphyxia depending on the tumor progression. This is why treatment needs to be initiated immediately after detection. To make a definitive diagnosis of a tracheal tumor, bronchoscopic biopsy can be used. However, as it is a submucosal tumor and there is a potential risk for airway obstruction caused by bleeding, bronchoscopy is difficult to perform in some cases, which may require an intraoperative pathological diagnosis.
Removal of the tumor is the basic treatment, but the question is whether to take a surgical or endoscopic approach. In recent years, some reports have been published on resected cases of relatively small, pedunculated tumors in which a high frequency snare [3, 6] or Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) laser [7, 8] was used. In broad-based tumors, however, these methods can potentially result in bleeding, rupture of the membranous portion, or residual tumor, and therefore, surgical resection is often selected. There is a report describing that surgery for a pulmonary leiomyoma often includes pneumectomy [9]. Although some patients with primary tracheal leiomyomas reportedly undergo tumor removal through tracheotomy [10], the surgical procedure usually consists of tracheal segmental resection and direct anastomosis [11]. To ligate the trachea, an absorbable polypropylene suture is reportedly used in many cases. Unlike malignant tumors, extensive resection is not required, and thus, mobilization of the trachea and other associated procedures are not performed.