Feasibility and safety of general anesthesia for bronchial thermoplasty: a description of early 10 treatments.

Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a recently introduced bronchoscopic treatment for patients with asthma refractory to pharmacotherapy. Intraprocedural sedation management is important for successful performance of BT. However, the results of general anesthesia in patients undergoing BT have not been well described. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of general anesthesia in patients undergoing BT. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 10 consecutive BT treatments performed under general anesthesia in 4 patients. The feasibility outcomes were coughing and body movement during the procedure, procedure abandonment, and the relative frequency of thermal activation failure. The safety outcomes were bronchospasm and hypoxemia during the procedure, respiratory symptoms, and the need for oxygen after the procedure. Coughing occurred in two treatments. Neither body movement nor procedure abandonment occurred in any treatments. Neither intraprocedural bronchospasm nor hypoxemia occurred in any treatments. Respiratory symptoms occurred in 7 of 10 treatments within 1 day after the procedure and resolved within 4 days, which is comparable with a previous report. These results indicate that general anesthesia is feasible and safe for patients undergoing BT.