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Background Noisy breathing is a very common complaint among children. It may carry a risk for life-threatening problems. Flexible bronchoscopy (FB) has become one of the most widely used diagnostic tools used by pediatric pulmonologists. Several forces are needed to be explored to help refine its use and reduce its complications. Aim The paper aimed to evaluate the use of pediatric bronchoscopy as a safe diagnostic tool for persistent and/or atypical noisy breathing children, the possible complications, and how it helps to change the management. Patients and methods A total of 100 children, aged from 1 month to 16 years, with persistent and/or noisy breathing were included in a prospective study using FB (May 2016 to May 2019) at a Tertiary Care Medical Center (Sohag University Hospital). The authors evaluated how bronchoscopy contributed to the patients’ diagnosis, what were the complications and limits in the center, and how the authors could deal with them. Results Overall, 37% of patients had malacia disorders, 22% had airway inflammation, 20% had foreign body aspiration, 6% vocal cord dysfunction, 6% subglottic stenosis, 4% tracheal stenosis, 1% subglottic hemangioma, and in three cases, no abnormalities could be detected. Minor complications occurred in 20% of cases; the most common was desaturation (10%), followed by exaggerated cough reflex, laryngeal spasm, and bronchospasm. Conclusion FB provided rapid and definitive diagnosis (confirming, ruling out, and discovering unexpected diagnosis) for the patients. It is a safe procedure and should be considered in the evaluation of children with persistent or atypical noisy breathing. |
