What is bronchoscopy and how is it done?

In modern medicine, there are many ways to study the airways and identify their diseases. When asked what bronchoscopy is, you can answer this: it is a procedure that allows you to carefully inspect the lungs with a special thin hose (bronchoscope). The diagnostic device is equipped with a light and small camera that provides video fixing of the mucous organ. A bronchoscope passes through the mouth or nose gently into the throat, trachea and respiratory tract, after which the specialist conducts a study of the lumens between the branches of the organ.

The essence of the procedure

There are two types of diagnostic devices: flexible and hard type. They can vary in width.

The use of a flexible bronchoscope is more common. The tool is able to move into smaller branches in the depth - bronchioles. It is used for the following procedures:

• Organization of access of oxygen.
• Collection of fluid secretions and sputum.
• Deliveries of medicines to organs.

Bronchoscopy under general anesthesia is performed with a hard type apparatus that is used to test wide air gaps. Scope of its application:

• Removal of excessive fluid and blood discharge.
• Exercising control of bleeding.
• Release of the respiratory tract from outside particles (including in children).

Bronchoscopic examination is performed in the operating unit with the introduction of anesthetics.

When is the procedure given?

What is bronchoscopy and when is it shown? This method is appropriate for the following cases:

• Detection of benign tumors.
• When diagnosing bronchial cancer.
• Detection of obstructive airway processes (scientifically - obstruction).
• Areas of narrowing of the area in the bronchopulmonary node.
• Diagnosis of inflammatory and infectious processes, including tuberculosis, interstitial diseases.
• Identify the causes of chronic cough and blood discharge.
• Confirmation or exclusion of the diagnosis of stain reflection during chest X-ray.

Bronchoscopy of the lungs - what is it and how do they do it?

Before carrying out this procedure, you need to completely free yourself from jewelry, jewelry, false-jaw prostheses, contact lenses and the like. It is advisable to visit the toilet beforehand. Diagnosis is carried out with a minimum amount of clothes on the patient.

When performing a study with a flexible bronchoscope, general anesthesia is not needed . It is quite enough local anesthesia by injecting the preparation with a spray in the mouth or nose. The patient is lying or half-lying. The specialist introduces the device, moves it further through the throat to the organ under investigation.

Features

What is bronchoscopy in the process? The display shows the picture of the passed section with its gradual progress to the bronchi and lungs. If the procedure is also aimed at cleaning the bronchial mucus, at the same time the saline is sprayed onto this organ.

When a rigid bronchoscope is introduced to manipulations, the health worker proceeds after receiving the patient general anesthesia. The whole operation takes no more than 40-50 minutes. The invasive (alien) nature of the procedure requires a certain short rehabilitation. After bronchoscopy, you should abstain for 2-3 hours from ingestion of food, water, cigarettes. Also, you should not sit down for driving a vehicle.

Risks and prohibitions

What is bronchoscopy and what are its consequences? This question can be answered almost unequivocally: manipulation is not pleasant, like most medical studies, but pathological complications are extremely rare.

Possible adverse effects:

• The appearance of bleeding, most often occurs with a biopsy.
• There is a small percentage of the occurrence of an infectious disease.
• Sometimes there is difficulty breathing.
• During the procedure, the oxygen level in the blood can decrease.

Contraindications for bronchoscopy:

• Serious narrowing or occlusion of the trachea (stenosis).
• Elevated blood pressure in the pulmonary blood vessels (hypertension).
• An angry strong cough or severe emesis.

A patient with a high level of carbon dioxide in the blood may need a special breathing machine before manipulation. This technique allows direct delivery of oxygen into the lungs.

Preparatory process

First of all, you need to consult a specialized medic about all possible consequences, objectivity and reliability of the results of this procedure. The specialist should adequately navigate the terminology, the name of the drugs, have an understanding of the patient's history and information about the presence of allergic reactions to medications.

Absolutely normal phenomenon is the direction before the diagnosis of blood donation or other tests. This practice is quite common in most diagnostic manipulations. For 10-12 hours before the passage of bronchoscopy, you should give up eating.

Patient Reviews

Bronchoscopy of the lungs - what is it? Patients' responses were divided polarly. Given all the nuances, it should be understood that few procedures in medicine can be called pleasant. The objective merits of the study under consideration are many seen in the following aspects:

• Possibility to study the state of the lungs from the inside and to assess their condition as accurately as possible.
• Help in establishing the final and correct diagnosis.
• Time-limited duration of the procedure without the need for general anesthesia.

According to the patients' feedback, in 80% of cases the detection of an oncological pathology of the respiratory system at an early stage occurs due to bronchoscopy in conjunction with a biopsy.

The main negative consequences include discomfort, rather unpleasant sensations, moral fear of manipulation.

Minuses

Bronchoscopy, which is often reviewed in a negative way, allows solving a variety of diagnostic problems that can not be detected without identification of this procedure or can be determined at an advanced stage of the disease. However, the complaints about the consequences of this operation include the following:

• Painful sensations in the throat, nose, chest, which can last from a few hours to a week or more.
• Problems with breathing during the procedure.
• Unpleasant sensation of foreign body in the body for several hours after bronchoscopy.

Very rarely there can be really significant complications. There are isolated cases when a patient with cancer had a bleeding after a bronchoscopy. After that for several years, the hoarseness of the voice, tonsillitis, weakness remained.

Conclusion

Whatever it was, bronchoscopy of the lungs is an effective modern technique for examining the respiratory organs, without which it is rather difficult to timely diagnose and identify malignant formations at an early stage. The procedure allows you to detect a variety of pathologies in the respiratory tract, which can save a person not only health, but life.