TRACHEAL obstruction by a primary tumor is customarily treated by endoscopic methods, namely, piecemeal removal of tissue projecting from the wall of the trachea, diathermic cautery of the base of the tumor and dilation. Such procedures have sufficed to relieve many patients of their symptoms for months. Because a fairly large proportion of primary tumors in the trachea are cylindromas, which invade little beyond the trachea and grow slowly, control of the tumor may be possible for several years. Obviously, however, a more nearly ideal treatment would conform to the accepted principle of surgery in neoplastic disease: complete excision of the tumor, the tumor-bearing region and a surrounding margin of normal tissue. The rareness of tumors of the trachea has, on the one hand, provided little incentive to develop a method of radical surgical treatment, and, on the other hand, the hazards which come to mind in the contemplation of a possible