Role of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy in Establishing the Diagnosis of Various Lung Diseases in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background Fiber-optic bronchoscopy is a safe and useful diagnostic and therapeutic tool for the management of the pulmonary diseases. Materials and Methods This Descriptive study was done to find out the demographic profiles, indications, bronchoscopic findings, and diagnosis of the patients who underwent bronchoscopic examination.100 patients underwent bronchoscopies in the department of Pulmonary Medicine, LNJP Hospital for a period of one year. RESULTS Amongst the 100 patients, commonest indication of bronchoscopy was radiological opacity found in 80 % of patients, followed by diffuse pulmonary infiltrates in 6 % of patients. Most common clinical presentation of the patients was Cough (88 %). Out of 100 patients, 72 (72 %) were males and 28 (28 %) were females. The age group of maximum patients was above 50 years. Mean age was 48.8 years. Out of 100 patients, 79 % patients were smokers (present and past) and 21 % were non-smokers. The most common finding on brochoscopy was endobronchial growth found in about 45 % of patients. On cytology, Malignancy was seen in 20 % cases while in 13 % patients cytological analysis depicted suspected malignancy. On histopathological analysis, neoplastic changes were found in 22 (30.5 %) cases while non neoplastic changes were found in 48.6 % of cases that included Tuberculosis (13.8 %), Pneumoconiosis (8.3 %), Non specific inflammation (18.05 %), Sarcoidosis (6.94 %), Aspergillosis (1.38 %) CONCLUSION Fiber optic bronchoscopy is extremely useful in finding specific etiologies of various lung diseases.