Chest
Deaths and Complications Associated with Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy
Section snippets
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A new questionnaire was sent to 1,041 known owners of fiberoptic bronchoscopes. Information was solicited regarding the number of procedures and biopsies performed, the anesthetics employed, the method of cleaning the fiberoptic bronchoscope, and the life-threatening complications encountered. Follow-up letters were sent to physicians if a death, broken bronchial brush, or pneumothorax was reported. In addition, two deaths that were not disclosed by data from the questionnaires are also
RESULTS
Of 1,041 questionnaires sent, 323 (31 percent) were returned. Approximately 48,000 bronchoscopic examinations and 6,300 biopsies were reported by the replying physicians. Since the exact number of bronchoscopic examinations could not be verified, incidences of complications were not calculated.
Twelve deaths were reported by 11 physicians, including the two that were not obtained from data on the questionnaires. Of the 12 deaths, two that occurred after the administration of anesthetics but
DISCUSSION
There have been few reports of deaths associated with fiberoptic bronchoscopic examination. Credle et al1 reported four deaths occurring in 24,521 procedures. One death was associated with excessive tetracaine anesthesia; another occurred in a patient with metastatic carcinoma who developed a cardiac arrest. The third death occurred while a seriously ill patient underwent bronchoscopic examination through an 8-mm endotracheal tube, and the fourth was related to an unspecified ancillary
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank the 323 cooperating physicians for their candid replies to the questionnaire and Dr. John Guerrant for his critical review of this manuscript.
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Cited by (0)
Read before the Combined American Thoracic Society and Canadian Thoracic Society Conference on Lung Disease, Montreal, May 20, 1975.
Manuscript received November 17; revision accepted December 19.