Dr. Vukoica Karličić, specialist in pneumophthisiology and interventional pulmonology from Belgrade visited the University Clinical Center Tuzla on Friday. Together with health professionals from the Clinic for Pulmonary Diseases he performed two tracheal stent placement procedures in patients with lung tumors. As of yet, there has been no tracheal stent placement procedure performed in the University Clinical Center Tuzla or in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On this occasion Dr. Dženan Halilović, head of the Clinic for Pulmonary Diseases explained that trachea stent placement was performed in two patients diagnosed with a lung tumor. “Today, we performed the implantation of a stent in the trachea in two patients with a lung tumor and central airway obstruction due to the underlying disease. The chronic lack of oxygen additionally affects the patient’s quality of life and leads to secondary consequences. The procedure is performed in such a way that under a rigid bronchoscope we enter trachea where we placed a catheter through which a small balloon is passed, together with a stent that is wrapped around the balloon. The balloon is inflated, which expands the mesh, i.e. the stent, and then the balloon is deflated and pulled out, leaving the stent in the trachea. Tracheal stents are designed to provide effective support and dilation of the trachea, helping to relieve the symptoms of tracheal collapse or stenosis and other related conditions. The stent placement procedure itself takes about half an hour,” explained Dr. Halilović, who along with dr. Karličića participated in placing stents.
Dr. Vukoica Karličić has experience of over 30 years of work in the field of interventional bronchoscopy, and his specialty is interventional pulmonology. He expressed satisfaction with the established cooperation with doctors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily Dr. Dženan Halilović and Dr. Mladen Duronjić from Banja Luka, and pointed out that he hopes that interventional pulmonology will become one of the standard medical procedure in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Support in the realization of the professional visit of Dr. Karličić and the performance of the mentioned procedure was provided by the company Unifarm.