Awake tracheobronchial dilation without the use of rigid bronchoscopy.
Benign tracheal strictures have been treated by repeated dilations using rigid bronchoscopy and general anesthesia. An alternative approach using conscious sedation, fluoroscopy, flexible bronchoscopy, and Savary-Gilliard esophageal dilators (Cook Endoscopy, Inc, Winston-Salem, NC) is reported. All patients undergoing dilation while awake had lesions due to inflammatory disease or lesions that were not amenable to resection. This method may be less traumatic than rigid bronchoscopy and can be accomplished on an outpatient basis without the use of general anesthesia.
Chang
Andrew C
AC
Section of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. andrwchg@umich.edu
Pickens
Allan
A
Orringer
Mark B
MB
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001982:Bronchial Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D016292:Procedural Sedation; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000601:surgery; D004106:Dilatation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014135:Tracheal Stenosis / Q000601:surgery*