Rapid healing of endobronchial tuberculosis by local endoscopic injection of corticosteroids

Abstract

We report a case in which two endobronchial tuberculous lesions were diagnosed by bronchoscopy. Under antituberculosis chemotherapy, one lesion was submucosally injected with corticosteroids. Twelve days later, this lesion had almost completely disappeared, whereas the other lesion had remained unchanged. The latter lesion was then injected with corticosteroids, which resulted, 14 days later, in complete healing. Six months later, there were no stenotic or other lesions. These observations suggest that local injection of corticosteroids in endobronchial tuberculous lesions induces a rapid and complete resolution of these lesions, and may prevent the development of bronchostenosis.