BRONCHOSCOPIC THERAPY IN CHILDHOOD

Bronchoscopy in children has been proven to be essential for the diagn osis of pulmonary diseases. In recent years considerable progress has been made in anesthesiological and instrumental techniques making bron choscopy a very safe procedure that belongs to basic diagnostic proced ures. Extensive application early in the diagnostic process yields inf ormation on central airway pathology that can not be obtained by other methods. Far gone are the times, when the well known bronchologist Ro bert E. Wood had been accused as ''voyer, who is putting the children in danger out of sheer curiosity''. If pathological processes of the c entral airways are recognised in time, treatment frequently can be app lied by means of interventional bronchoscopy. This is demonstrated by the examples of central airway stenosis, aspiration of foreign materia l, fistula and hemorrhage. Out of more than 600 bronchoscopies in chil dren more than 100 where therapeutic interventions sparing, the childr en the fisk of major thoracic surgical procedures or to resolve compli cations after surgery.