Prediction of patient discomfort during fibreoptic bronchoscopy

This study investigated the potential for predicting which patients would have a negative emotional reaction to bronchoscopy.

A questionnaire was distributed to 120 patients who had undergone diagnostic fibreoptic bronchoscopy. A visual analog scale to evaluate the patient's discomfort was adopted. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine factors significantly influencing discomfort. The regression model included the following variables: age, gender, symptoms, smoking habits, proximal bronchial brushing, distal bronchial brushing, bronchial washing, proximal transbronchial biopsy, transbronchial lung biopsy, examination time, the bronchoscopist's experience, and the patient's anxiety level.

The bronchoscopist's experience (P = 0.001) and the patient's anxiety level (P < 0.001) were variables that significantly influenced discomfort. These results suggest that discomfort decreased with the bronchoscopist's experience and increased with the patient's anxiety regarding bronchoscopy.

The results suggest that subjective discomfort can be predicted both by the bronchoscopist's experience and by a questionnaire about the patient's anxiety level before bronchoscopy. Therefore, it is recommended that the patient's anxiety level be determined through the use of a questionnaire before bronchoscopy, and that more experienced bronchoscopists should take charge if the patient is judged as being excessively anxious. If experienced bronchoscopists are unavailable, the more anxious patient should receive more sedatives.