Pediatric flexible bronchoscopy: A tertiary single center experience

Flexible bronchoscopy (FB) is an important tool for evaluating pediatric patients with respiratory issues. This study aims to investigate the clinical features of children who underwent FB.

The study included 191 children who underwent FB between April 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. Demographic and clinical data were retrospectively reviewed.

One hundred ninety-one children (45% girl) were enrolled to study. Median age was 25 months (min 1, max 214 months) and median duration of complaints was 4 (min 1, max 80) months. Among the patients, 61.7% of them had a chronic disease. The main indications were stridor (17.6%) and extubation failure (13.5%). Rate of patients in the ICU during FB was 27.5% and 15.5% of them were intubated. Airway secretions in the lower respiratory tract and isolated laryngomalacia were the most common abnormal FB results (30.1% and 9.8% respectively). The most common abnormal FB findings were in children with extubation failure (92.3%). Forty percent of patients with chronic cough had abnormal FB findings. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) sampling was performed in 61.6% (n=119) of patients and Haemophilus influenzae was the most common pathogen in these patients (n=40).

FB is a valuable tool for investigating airway pathology and BAL sampling in children with respiratory problems.