Should Bronchoscopy be Performed in the Evaluation of Suspected Pediatric Pulmonary Tuberculosis?

Could CT scan avoid unnecessary flexible bronchoscopy in children with active pulmonary tuberculosis? A retrospective study

“…The culture yield of flexible bronchoscopy was low in our series (5.8%), but this is in keeping with published data with results ranging from 3.8% to 13% 2 4 7 16 17. Recommendations for microbiological confirmation in children are based on three early morning gastric lavages 29.…”

Bronchoscopic assessment of airway involvement in children presenting with clinically significant airway obstruction due to tuberculosis

“…The upper part of the trachea was seldom involved. Bibi et al have previously reported that the right main bronchus (RMB) was the most common area of obstruction. This is in contrast to the present study where RMB obstruction was only seen in 13% of cases.…”

“…Flexible bronchoscopy (FB), an invasive procedure used to assess the airways of children, is mostly performed under general anesthesia. Few studies have been published on the use of FB in the diagnosis of pediatric TB and most of these studies have concentrated on the use of bronchoscopy as a method for obtaining diagnostic samples. The majority of the published studies are from developed countries with a very low incidence of PTB in children, which complicates the applicability of the findings to high burden countries.…”

“…The majority of the published studies are from developed countries with a very low incidence of PTB in children, which complicates the applicability of the findings to high burden countries. Bibi et al found that only 2 out of 80 children were culture positive on broncho‐alveolar lavage (BAL) and that the opening of the right main bronchus was the most common site of airway obstruction. De Blic et al evaluated 121 FB procedures in 54 children, aged 3 months to 14 years, suspected of having PTB.…”

Urban tuberculosis: The new face of an old problem

“…More invasive studies are generally undertaken at this point and include bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage, transbronchial or endobronchial biopsies, pleural fluid smear, culture, and biopsy, and gastric aspirates. Table 4 details approximate yields of these diagnostic techniques [14][15][16][17]. Table 1 IV-intravenous; TB-tuberculosis.…”