Pediatric flexible bronchoscopy: a three-year experience.

One hundred and forty-one flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopies were performed in 124 pediatric patients in Chang Gung Children's Hospital between October 1991 and September 1994. Eleven of these patients were younger than 1 month old; 52 patients were younger than 1 year old; 94 patients were younger than 6 years old. The bronchoscope used was Olympus BF 3C20; with a 3.5 mm outer diameter, it also has a build-in 1.2 mm working channel. Most of the procedures were done in the pediatric intensive care unit. Oral chloral hydrate and parenteral benadryl were given as pre-sedation medication 30 minutes before the procedures; for most cases intravenous midazolam and meperidine hydrochloride were given immediately before the examination. The most common diagnoses were laryngomalacia, airway foreign bodies, subglottic stenosis or tracheal stenosis. Six episodes of transient hypoxemia and one brief episode of apnea were encountered. It was concluded that flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy, very useful and safe in pediatric patients, has been underused in Taiwan.