title: Safety of fiberoptic bronchoalveolar lavage in evaluation of interstitial lung disease.
abstract: Over a three-year period, 281 fiberoptic bronchoalveolar lavage procedures were performed on 119 individuals with interstitial lung disease and 22 normal volunteers. There were no major complications. Less than 5 percent of the procedures were associated with minor complications including (2.5 percent), pneumonitis (0.4 percent), bleeding (0.7 percent) and bronchospasm (0.7 percent); none of these complications required therapy. Those individuals developing complications had a wide range of physiologic findings; functional tests could not predict which subjects were more likely to develop minor complications associated with lavage. These findings suggest that bronchoalveolar lavage for interstitial disease is a safe procedure associated with minor risks.
mesh_terms: D001980:Bronchi / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology; D006646:Histiocytosis, Langerhans-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000209:etiology; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000166:cytology*; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000175:diagnosis; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*