Bronchoscopy Procedure

Bronchoscopy Procedure

Bronchoscopy Procedure 

Bronchoscopy

This test can also be used during the treatment of some lung conditions.

How the test is performed?

A bronchoscope is a device used to look inside the airways and lungs. It can be flexible or rigid. The flexible bronchoscope is almost always used. It is a tube less than half an inch (1 centimeter) in diameter and about 2 feet (60 centimeters) long. Rarely, a rigid bronchoscope is used.

You will probably receive medications through a vein (IV or intravenously) to help you relax. Or you may be asleep under general anesthesia, especially if a rigid bronchoscope is used.

A sedative (anesthetic) drug will be sprayed in the mouth and throat. If bronchoscopy is done through the nose, an anesthetic jelly is placed in the nostril through which the tube passes.

The bronchoscope is inserted gently. It will probably cause a cough at first. The cough will stop as anesthesia begins to take effect.

Your healthcare provider can introduce a saline solution through the tube. This washes the lungs and allows your provider to collect samples of lung cells, fluids, microbes and other materials inside the alveoli. This part of the procedure is called washing.

Sometimes, it is possible to insert tiny needles, tweezers or brushes through the bronchoscopy and use them to obtain very small samples of tissue (biopsies) from the lungs.

Your provider may also place a stent in the airway or look at the lungs with ultrasound during the procedure. A stent is a small medical device in the form of a tube. Ultrasound is a painless imaging method that allows your provider to see inside your body.

Sometimes, ultrasound is used to look at lymph nodes and tissues around the airways.

At the end of the procedure. the bronchoscope is removed.