Clinical, laboratory and epidemiological evaluation of children with flexible bronchoscopy at Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Unit of Children's chest diseases

Objective: Bronchoscopy is one of the most preferred invasive methods in the chest diseases today. Bronchoscopy is an interventional procedure that allows viewing of the tracheobronchial tree, as well as taking samples from the airways, lung parenchyma and mediastinal lymph nodes for histopathological diagnosis. In this study, epidemiological features, clinical conditions, post-procedural laboratory parameters and diagnoses of pediatric patients who underwent PFFB in the pediatric pulmonology department of Dicle University were used as data. In the study, it was aimed to expand the usage areas of PFFB and to improve the current diagnostic aid function. Materials and Methods: This is a single-center retrospective cross-sectional study. Patients aged 0-18 years, who underwent PFFB procedure in Dicle University Faculty of Medicine, Pediatric Chest Diseases Polyclinic between 2011-2021 were included in the study. Basic demographic information (age, gender), information about current diseases (bronchoscopy indications, macroscopic findings, diagnosis), imaging and laboratory information (BAL results, computed tomography) of the patients included in the study were obtained from archive files, hospital information system and imaging pacs system. The noted data of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results: When the patients were evaluated according to their gender and mean age, 575 (57.5%) of the patients were male and 425 (42.5%) were female. Considering the mean age of the patients according to their gender, the mean age of boys was 39.0±52.4 months, and the mean age of girls was 50.4±59.4 months. The mean age of all patients was calculated as 43.8±55.7 months. Bronchoscopy was performed in 218 (21.8%) patients for stridor, 168 (16.8%) patients for recurrent lung infection, 139 (13.9%) patients for persistent cough, and 106 (10.6%) patients for wheezing and 73 (7.3%) patients for foreign body aspiration. After pediatric flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy, 93.4% of patients diagnosed with laryngomalacia, 75.4% of patients diagnosed with tracheomalacia and 78% of patients diagnosed with bronchomalacia were under 24 months. Conclusion: Pediatric flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopes are used to evaluate airway anatomy and physiology in pediatric patients; and allows sampling from the lung. The reliability of bronchoscopy, which is an invasive method, can be increased by experienced practitioners, a good pre-anesthetic medication and vital signs monitoring during the procedure. Due to its contribution to diagnosis and treatment, its use as a safe invasive procedure in pediatric patients can be expanded.