[Pulmonary tumor mass aberration into the bronchus of the intact right lung during total left lung resection].

A 77-year-old male with lung cancer underwent a total left lung resection. During surgery, there was no ventilatory trouble such as hypoventilation or hypoxia. However, a mass was found in the right main bronchus by endobronchial fiberscopy before extubation. Because the mass could not be aspirated through the endobronchial fiberscope, we extracted it using basket-foreceps. We speculated that surgical procedures may have caused the tumor mass to move to the bronchus of the contralateral intact lung. Accordingly, fiberscopic examination of the airway before extubation should be mandatory, even if there is no ventilatory trouble during lung resection.