Introduction: Congenital lobar emphysema (CLE) is a rare anomaly of lung development that presents in the neonatal period in about 50% of the cases. The authors report four clinical cases of congenital lobar emphysema in the newborn.
Clinical cases: Four term newborns, 3M/ 1F, were admitted for respiratory distress starting between 20 hours of life and 18 days. The chest x -ray at admission was suggestive of CLE and the diagnosis was confirmed by computorized tomography. The CLE affected the right upper lobe in three cases and the medium lobe in one case. All patients were treated with lobectomy. The pathological study of the surgical specimens confirmed the diagnosis in the four cases, and revealed hypoplasia of the bronquiolar tree cartilage in three.
Conclusions: Our series is according to literature regarding to male gender preponderance, clinical presentation, different time to diagnosis, unilobar involvement and no identification of an evident aetiology in one case. Surgical treatment was universal.