Lung Center

Calcified Lymph Node Invading Rt Middle Lobe 03/10/2011

Question:

I`m a 58 year old female in the mid-west. I began coughing 4 years ago with increasing heavy mucous. Last August I had a bronchoscopy and they found what they first believed was a piece of popcorn but later determined to be calcified material with a fungal infection, although it never isolated in the lab. They removed part but couldn`t get to the rest that was embedded in lung tissue. Dr prescribed a year-long treatment of steroid inhaler but I had side effects and he took me off it after two weeks and ordered no other treatment.

He repeated the procedure last week and found a larger calcified mass. The doctor speculates that a calcified lymph node has pushed into my lung and says the right middle lobe needs to be removed, which he also thought last year. He says that if it continues to grow and hits a vessel I could have internal bleeding in my lung. Do you agree that this is the only, and necessary, treatment?

Answer:

Yes, surgical resection is the usual treatment for what sounds like a broncholith.  

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Response by:

Jeff E Weiland, MD Associate Professor - Clinical OSU Asthma Center College of Medicine The Ohio State University