Bronchoscopy will directly show the structure or abnormality in the respiratory tract.

Helps diagnose the following problems

1. Abnormal lesions in chest X-ray, CT or MRI…
2. Difficult airway: endotracheal intubation or extubation failure.
3. Respiratory distress, chronic cough, hemoptysis, and atelectasis
4. Shortness of breath, abnormal breathing sounds, poor sleeping quality, and feeding difficulty caused by respiratory abnormality or esophageal abnormality.
5. Unknown pulmonary infection, trauma and foreign body aspiration.

Assist the following treatment

For patients suffering from respiratory difficulty caused by airway narrowing (blockage, stenosis, malacia), they can be treated with therapeutic bronchoscopy to improve the condition by:

Suctioning, forceps remove blockage, laser-plasty, balloon dilatation, cryotherapy and stent implantation.

Precautions before Examination and Treatment  

1. Fasting at least 4-6 hours before doing bronchoscopy is required. Families should make sure their children not to eat or drink (including water, milk and other liquid) to prevent choking or aspiration pneumonia during examination.
2. The entire examination takes about 30 -60 minutes (longer time may needed for complicated bronchoscopy). Parents need to wait patiently.
3. The actual examination schedule depends on the examination progress.  We apologize for any inconvenience.
4. Before the examination, we will provide the appropriate intravenous sedation and spray local anesthetics on the throat to alleviate the procedural discomfort and anxiety of your children.

Examination Process

After sedation, a flexible or rigid bronchoscope is inserted into the respiratory tract (including nose, pharynx, throat, main bronchus, bilateral bronchioles), esophagus and stomach. The main purpose of bronchoscopy is making the correct diagnosis. For further treatment, the physician will discuss with the family depending on the urgency of illness condition.

Instructions after Examination and Treatment

1. Due to sedation, it takes about 1-2 hours of consciousness recovery after the examination.
2. Temporary Fasting for 2 hours after examination: The patient can try drink some water 1 hour after complete awake. If there is no chocking or cough episode, the patient can start taking half amount of regular diet.
3. It is recommended to take small amount of light food initially to reduce throat discomfort.
4. Some people may have blood-tinged sputum or nasal discharge after the examination. The conditions will improve within 1-2 days.
5. Temporary sore throat or hoarseness may happen, but there is no need to worry about, and these events will improve eventually in about 1 week.
6. If you experiences persistent fever, hemoptysis, chest pain, or difficulty in breathing after the examination, please revisit our OPD as soon as possible.
7. Please revisit for report according to the scheduled appointment.

For any question, please contact us at any time.

Pulmonary Function Test and Bronchoscopy Room of Children’s Hospital.