Patients with bronchial tree lesions feature, in particular, a high risk for developing bronchial fistulae after surgical repair when the clinical situation is complicated by acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and mechanical ventilation is needed. The current authors hypothesised that extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal would significantly decrease inspiratory airway pressures, thus promoting the protection of surgical bronchial reconstruction.Four patients were studied after surgical reconstruction of bronchial fistulae in whom ALI/ARDS developed and mechanical ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure was required. Gas exchange, tidal volumes, airway pressures, respiratory frequency, vasopressor and sedation requirements were analysed before and after initiation of a pumpless extracorporeal lung assist device (pECLA; NovaLung1, Talheim, Germany). Initiation of pECLA treatment enabled a reduction of inspiratory plateau airway pressures from 32.4 to 28.6 cmH 2 O (3.2 to 2.8 kPa), effectively treated hypercapnia (from 73.6 to 53.4 mmHg (9.8 to 7

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