Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020;99(5):417-422.
doi: 10.1159/000507898. Epub 2020 Apr 28.

Performing Bronchoscopy in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Practice Statement from an International Expert Panel

Fengming Luo  1 , Kaid Darwiche  2 , Suveer Singh  3   4   5 , Alfonso Torrego  6 , Daniel P Steinfort  7   8 , Stefano Gasparini  9 , Dan Liu  1 , Wei Zhang  10 , Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy  11 , Felix J F Herth  12   13 , Pallav L Shah  3   4   5
Affiliations

Performing Bronchoscopy in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Practice Statement from an International Expert Panel

Fengming Luo et al. Respiration. 2020.

Abstract

These recommendations for physicians who perform bronchoscopy will help to protect those patients (un)-affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, minimize the risk of transmission, and maintain clinical care for all patients.

Keywords: Bronchoscopy; COVID-19; Interventional pneumology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare related to the publication.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Checklist for bronchoscopy from the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK (permission granted by Dr. Singh).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Male patient, aged 66 years. Admission to hospital presenting with cough and fever for 10 days. He had COPD and hypertension. The patient was intubated and ventilated on March 15, 2020, following progressive hypoxemic respiratory failure despite high-flow nasal oxygen therapy (HFNO). Veno-venous ECMO was instituted on day 2 due to refractory severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARDS). Chest radiography demonstrated worsening opacification in the right low zone. Hence, bronchoscopy was performed on day 4. Therapeutic BAL was performed in the right lower lobe basal segments. A large quantity of mucus was cleared. A chest X-ray the following day showed clearing of the lung fields and restored visibility of the right hemidiaphragm.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Protection during bronchoscopy on a ventilated COVID-19 patient.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control (cited 2020 April 6) https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y, Liang WH, Ou CQ, He JX, et al. China Medical Treatment Expert Group for Covid-19 Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020 Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32242738. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Du Y, Tu L, Zhu P, Mu M, Wang R, Yang P, et al. Clinical Features of 85 Fatal Cases of COVID-19 from Wuhan: A Retrospective Observational Study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32242738. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang D, Hu B, Hu C, Zhu F, Liu X, Zhang J, et al. Clinical Characteristics of 138 Hospitalized Patients With 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA. 2020 Feb;323((11)):1061. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ferretti L, Wymant C, Kendall M, Zhao L, Nurtay A, Abeler-Dörner L, et al. Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing. Science. 2020 Mar;31:eabb6936. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms