Flexible bronchoscopy as a diagnostic and therapeutic method in patients with tracheobronchial foreign body

Abstract

Objective: To analyze bronchoscopy as a diagnostic and therapeutic method in patients with tra- cheobronchial foreign body. Methods: We analyzed reports of flexible bronchoscopy with diag- nose of tracheobronchial foreign body performed from 2003 to 2013 in São Salvador Hospital, in Goiania, capital of Goiás. The analysis was based on: sex and age of the patients, airways and for- eign body characteristics, foreign body localization, success rate and rate of bleeding. We calcu- lated the frequencies after analyzing the data. Results: We analyzed 26 reports of the studied pe- riod and found that 57.7% of the patients were male with median age of 58.83 years old (+−13.79). The airways characteristics were normal in most of the cases. Sputum wasn’t found in 57.69% of the cases. Foreign bodies were located in right bronchus in 88.46% of the cases, and the extraction of them was successful in 80.76% of the cases. The absence of bleeding was reported in 96.15% of the cases. Conclusions: Flexible bronchoscopy is a notably successful method in management of tracheobronchial foreign bodies. Airways characteristics aren’t good indicatives of FB’s presence, once they are normal in most of the times.