Does bronchoscopy help in resolving the etiology of Non-resolving Pneumonia? Experience in a Tertiary Care Center

Abstract

 Background : Normal resolution time of pneumonia is variable. Non-resolving pneumonia is a challenging clinical problem. Etiological, patient and treatment-related factors affect outcomes. Bronchoscopy is initial diagnostic technique in evaluating these patients. The study explored the utility of bronchoscopy in diagnosing of non-resolving pneumonia.

Material and Methods: Records of the patients diagnosed with non-resolving pneumonia who underwent bronchoscopy from 20^th January 2017 to 19^th January 2018 were analysed. The data analyzed included demographic characteristics, clinical profile, bronchoscopic findings, chest imaging, and hospital discharge status. Non-resolving pneumonia was defined as focal infiltrates with symptoms of acute pulmonary infection and lack of clinical and radiological improvement within 12 weeks despite a minimum of 10 days treatment. For analysis descriptive statistics like mean and percentage and tabular and graphical presentation were made.

Results: Forty-five patients had non resolving Pneumonia. A total 75.0% were males with age range of 25 to 85 years and commons symptom were cough with fever (75.0%) followed by hemoptysis, chest pain, and breathlessness. Bronchoscopically multiple ulcerated lesions, inflamed tracheobronchial tree with mucopurulent secretions and mass lesions were common. Etiologically 66.6 % patients had TB, followed by lung cancer, bronchiectasis and pneumonia.

Conclusion: Bronchoscopy has better utility and is the diagnostic modality of choice in establishing etiology of non-resolving pneumonia.

 Journal of Nobel Medical College

Volume 7, Number 1, Issue 12, January-June 2018, page : 1-5