Allergy Asthma Respir Dis.  2013 Sep;1(3):274-279. 10.4168/aard.2013.1.3.274.

Usefulness of flexible bronchoscopy in treatment of atelectasis in children

• Chun YH
• Kang SS
• Bang KW
• Kim HS
• Lee EK
• Yoon JS
• Kim HH
• Kim JT
• Lee JS

• KMID: 2262971
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4168/aard.2013.1.3.274

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to evaluate the effect of flexible bronchoscopy for the treatment of secondary atelectasis of children following respiratory infection.
METHODS
The medical records for a total of 19 cases of flexible bronchoscopy were reviewed retrospectively, which were performed for the treatment of secondary atelectasis at the Department of Pediatrics of the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital from April 2007 to January 2013.
RESULTS
A total of 18 patients (11 males and 7 females) were involved in the study. The range of age was 4 months to 15 years old. The causative underlying diseases were 17 cases of pneumonia, 1 case of bronchiolitis and 1 case of bronchial asthma. The most common location of atelectasis was right middle lobe and right middle lobe with left lower lobe was next. Bronchoscopy revealed inflammatory changes in 12 cases (63.2%) such as mucus plug (n=4), profuse secretion (n=4), mucosal edema (n=3), and bronchial narrowing (n=1), although 7 cases (36.8%) showed normal airway. Other additional findings were bronchomalacia, tracheomalacia, and bronchial tree abnormality. Seven out of 19 cases who received therapeutic intervention had complete or partial reexpansion of their atelectasis. Cases who occurred atelectasis within 6 weeks showed significantly higher improvement than cases occurred after 6 weeks (70% vs. 11.1%, P=0.019). Complications including seizure, fever, hypoxia, mucous bleeding, and hypotension were observed in 6 cases.
CONCLUSION
Flexible bronchoscopy revealed to be effective and safe treatment modality in treatment of secondary atelectasis of children. Timely therapeutic intervention in pediatric patients should be considered.

Keyword

Pediatrics; Flexible bronchoscopy; Atelectasis; Treatment

MeSH Terms

Anoxia
Asthma
Bronchiolitis
Bronchomalacia
Bronchoscopy
Child
Edema
Hemorrhage
Humans
Hypotension
Korea
Male
Medical Records
Mucus
Pediatrics
Pneumonia
Pulmonary Atelectasis
Retrospective Studies
Seizures, Febrile
Tracheomalacia

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