Bronchoscopic preparation for airway resection

In patients being considered for tracheobronchial resection and reconstruction, therapeutic bronchoscopy provides a necessary and complementary role to airway resection. Surgeons involved in tracheobronchial reconstruction need to be adept at airway interventions with the flexible and the rigid bronchoscopes. Bronchoscopy is an important part of the evaluation, stabilization, and preparation of the airway before tracheobronchial resection. Therapeutic bronchoscopy also provides the most common alternative to airway resection so that familiarity with the techniques of therapeutic bronchoscopy is important as the surgeon considers the advantages of definitive versus palliative airway management. Furthermore, postoperative complications of tracheobronchial surgery may require therapeutic endoscopic interventions to optimize outcomes after tracheobronchial resection and reconstruction. In patients being considered for airway resection, bronchoscopy provides the most direct assessment for a tissue diagnosis and measurement of the extent of the lesion and its relation to airway landmarks and an assessment of the quality of the airway being considered for anastomosis. Patients who have critical airway stenosis and impending obstruction can be temporized by bronchoscopic dilatation or core out of endoluminal tumor. Bronchoscopic dilatation or core out allows stabilization of the patient, completion of the assessment for surgical resectability, and performance of an elective rather than an emergent surgical resection. By relieving airway obstruction, therapeutic bronchoscopy also can improve the assessment of tumor margins and allow for clearing of an obstructive pneumonia so that postoperative pulmonary and anastomotic complications are minimized. Airway resection remains the preferred definitive approach for benign and malignant airway pathologies, but therapeutic bronchoscopy provides a useful adjunct to surgery in assessing the patient for surgical resection, preparing the patient for surgery, and optimizing postoperative results.