Bronchoscopy
A bronchoscopy is procedure where a doctor looks into your large airways (the trachea and bronchi). These are the main tubes that carry air into the lungs. A fiber-optic bronchoscope is the device usually used. This is a thin, flexible, telescope.
The bronchoscope is passed through the nose, down the back of the throat, into the trachea, and down into the bronchi. The fiber-optics allows light to shine round bends in the bronchoscope and so the doctor can see clearly inside your airways.
When is it needed?
It is needed if you have suspected cancer of the bronchus (lung cancer). This may be because you have a ’shadow’ on a chest x-ray. With a bronchoscopy a doctor can see a growth in a bronchus, and take a sample to look at under the microscope. Other reasons include: if you have a persistent cough, or cough up blood, and the cause is not clear.
How is it done?
The doctor will numb the inside of your nose and the back of your throat by spraying on some local anesthetic. This may taste a bit unpleasant. Also, you will normally be given a sedative to help you to relax. This is usually given by an injection into a vein in the back of your hand.
You may be connected to monitor to check your heart rate and blood pressure during the procedure. A device called a pulse oximeter may also be put on a finger. This does not hurt. It checks the oxygen content of the blood and will indicate if you need extra oxygen during the bronchoscopy. You may have a soft plastic tube placed just inside your nostril to give you oxygen during the procedure.
The doctor will insert the tip of the bronchoscope into a nostril and then gently guide it round the back of your throat into your trachea. It is sometimes passed via the mouth rather than via the nose if you have narrow nasal passages. The doctor looks down the bronchoscope and inspects the lining of the trachea and main bronchi (the main airways). Also, modern bronchoscopes transmit pictures through a camera attachment onto a TV monitor for the doctor to look at.
The doctor may take one or more biopsies of parts of the inside lining of the airways – depending on why the test is done and what they see.
The bronchoscopy itself usually takes about 20-30 minutes. If you have a sedative you may take an hour or so before you are ready to go home after the bronchoscopy is finished. The sedative will normally make you feel quite pleasant and relaxed.
Your nose and throat may be a little sore for a day or so afterwards. You may feel tired or sleepy for several hours caused by the sedative. Serious complications occur in less than 1 in 1000 bronchoscopies. Most bronchoscopies are done without any problems.
