Background: Congenital lobar emphysema (CLE) is relatively an uncommon congenital lung malformation 
presenting with respiratory distress of varying severity mostly during the neonatal or the infantile period due 
to air trapping in the affected lobe or lobes.
Aim: The authors review surgical experience in this congenital malformation; the simplest way of diagnosis 
and the standard treatment of choice in addition to the comparison of this study with other international 
studies.
Patients and Methods: Eighteen patients with congenital lobar emphysema were successfully managed 
during a ten years period (1999-2008) at the Thoracic Department of the Medical City Teaching Hospital in 
Baghdad, Iraq.
Results: These patients were studied according to their age, sex distribution, presenting symptoms, physical 
findings, and methods of diagnosis, surgical treatment, thoracotomy findings and the postoperative outcome.
Conclusion: Though the diagnosis can be accomplished by chest X-Ray in the upright position, the use of a 
more advance technology has resulted in the early identification and serial evaluation of this congenital 
anomaly and the treatment of choice is surgery, as lobectomy of the involved lobe offers the best chance of 
cure.