Foreign Body Removal: A New Role for the Fiberoptic Bronchoscope

Abstract

Artificial and animal lung models initially were used to investigate the removal of foreign bodies from the tracheobronchial tree with the flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope. Different extraction instruments (claw, basket, forceps, and balloon catheter) were passed separately through the channel of the bronchofiberscope, and tested for usefulness prior to human application. The Fogarty balloon catheter served as a valuable aid in dislodging impacted objects so that the operator could then grasp them with the claw, basket or forceps. The wire claw recovered many of the metallic and organic objects, the wire basket was successful in retrieving only the bulky objects and the forceps (ACMI) was effective in capturing all of the metallic foreign bodies. These techniques, developed in our laboratory, are now being used to augment rigid bronchoscopy in the removal of foreign bodies from adults and older children. At the present time fiberoptic foreign body removal is not recommended for pediatric cases because of the small diameter of the trachea and glottis in infants and young children.

Primary Pulmonary Plasmacytoma

“…Extramedullary plasmacytomas are unusual tumors that are closely associated with the upper respiratory tract in 80% of cases. 1 Plasmacytomas of the lower respiratory tract are very rare. Gordon and Walker reported the first in 1944.…”

“…There is no difference in survival among any of these treatment modalities. 1 The 2-year and 5-year survival rates are 66% and 40%, respectively. 2 Two patients have been reported to survive for 9 years, and two patients have been reported to survive for Ͼ 20 years.…”

“…Details of these cases were not presented. 1,2 We have observed three cases of pulmonary edema associated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy in 1,028 patients, who collectively represent 13,658 hyperbaric oxygen exposures. The etiology of pulmonary edema in patients treated with hyperbaric oxygen is unknown.…”

Retrieval of Endobronchial Foreign Bodies in Children: Involving the Cardiac Catheterization Lab

“…Accepted for publication Feb 3, 2014 Endobronchial foreign body (EFB) extraction has been successfully performed in children and adults using a variety of endoscopic retrieval techniques. 1,2 The standard of care is the use of rigid bronchoscopy for retrieval of EFBs. 3,4 However, difficulties remain in the extraction of the most distally placed EFBs.…”

Management of tracheobronchial foreign bodies-experience of cardiothoracic department of cardiology institute

“…In 1974, Zavala and Rhodes [2,3] demonstrated the use of flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy to remove FB in artificial lungs and animals. Currently endoscopic removal of foreign body has become the domain of the chest physician with few cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons involved in FB removal .…”