Pediatric bronchoscopy during a 17-year period.

From 1969 through 1985, 1032 pediatric bronchoscopies were performed on a total of 748 children under 16 years of age. Of the children 27.4% were under 6 months of age and the smallest patient weighed 600 g. Rigid bronchoscopes with a diameter ranging from 2.5 to 6 mm were used. A flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope with a diameter of 3.5 mm was used only occasionally, mostly for the diagnosis of laryngeal dynamics. All the endoscopies were performed under general anesthesia, except for some laryngoscopies performed with a flexible bronchoscope. The most common indications for bronchoscopy were suspected foreign body (16.7%), stridor (14.5%), recurrent respiratory infections (12.3%) and dyspnoe (9.6%). Laryngomalacia was observed in 13.8% of the children investigated and in patients with inspiratory stridor laryngomalacia was diagnosed in 39.8% of the cases. Subglottic stenosis was confirmed in 7.0% of the children. Tracheal compression was found in 10.8% and tracheal stenosis in 2.5% of the cases. Bronchiectasis was observed in 2.5% and tuberculosis in only 0.5% of the cases. Bronchoscopy was completely normal in only 10.6% of the patients investigated. The complications of pediatric bronchoscopy in this series were infrequent.