[The flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy report: medico-legal issues]

The flexible bronchoscopy report is one of the tools permitting exchange of medical information in respiratory medicine and is an integral part of the medical record. Currently, there is no consensus on its content, and consequently, there are no recommendations.

A survey was carried out involving experts from the Groupe d'Endoscopie de Langue Française (GELF--Endoscopy Research Group of the French Language Society of Pneumology) and a lawyer from the legal affairs and patient's rights department of the Paris public hospital system. Thirty-four questions distributed in eight chapters were asked in an eight-part questionnaire covering: 1) general administration, 2) environmental safety, 3) medical and anatomical description of the examination, 4) tolerance/complications of the examination, 5) conclusion, 6) image and video sequence capture, 7) administrative data for archiving, 8) disposable elements used during the examination. The results showed as many areas of convergence as they did divergence, between physicians, and between physicians and lawyer.

Collective consideration is required to harmonize the writing of bronchoscopy reports, to provide a tool that is not only consensual and complete, but also valid and sound from the medicolegal viewpoint.