Our experience in Interventional Pulmonology

Introduction Interventional bronchoscopy is a useful technique for the diagnosis and treatment of various respiratory pathologies. These techniques find their greatest applications in complications secondary to thoracic neoplasms in advanced stages. The objective of this study is to analyze our casuistry.

Material and methods Descriptive and observational study of 51 patients referred to our Unit for interventional bronchoscopy in 2020 and 2021.

Results 45% were men; mean age 61.5±12.4 years. 57% were active smokers. Of the total, 74.5% of the interventions were performed urgently. The most frequent pathology was neoplastic in 62.7% (43.1% pulmonary neoplasms), the remaining 37.2% a miscellany of other non-neoplastic pathologies.

The procedure was performed in 37.2% with a rigid tracheoscope, 23.5% securing the airway with a laryngeal mask, and 6 cases through conventional orotracheal intubation. The procedures performed are found in [Table 1]. In [Table 2] the different pathologies. In 80.4% of the cases there were no immediate complications, with a survival of 68.6% (9.7±7.1 months).

Conclusions Interventional bronchoscopy is a fairly safe technique despite being performed in circumstances of severe respiratory compromise.

The majority of interventions were presented urgently.

Compromise of the central airway secondary to neoplastic causes is the most frequent reason for performing these procedures.

Table 1

Table 2

Publication History

Article published online:
09 March 2023