Bronchoscopic interventional techniques

  Surgery for endoluminal tumors in the central airway, which used to be very tricky, has now become a relatively simple and minimally invasive treatment technique. This technique has made highly difficult and risky endoluminal tracheal surgery safe and simple from now on, and has promoted the process of minimally invasive treatment of endoluminal tracheal and bronchial diseases.  Compared with gastrointestinal endoscopic endoluminal intervention, transbronchoscopic endoluminal treatment has higher risk and difficulty, so its development has been relatively slow, especially in China, where few units carry out this technology. In the past 10 years or so, with the development of science and technology, the application of micro and practical devices to treat limited lesions in the bronchus has made great progress. This has enabled further treatment of endobronchial tumors that have lost the chance of surgery, especially those with large airway obstruction. It is also a suitable method for early stage lung cancer confined to the bronchial wall, such as those who are not suitable for surgery due to advanced age, poor cardiopulmonary function or other reasons. It is particularly effective in the treatment of benign lesions in the bronchial lumen that produce stenosis and obstruction, and can save patients the pain of surgery and the loss of lung function and some complications caused by open-heart surgery.  Bronchoscopic interventional techniques are suitable for the treatment of tracheal and bronchial lesions: benign tumors, malignant tumors, narrowing and obstruction of the airways caused by various reasons (inflammation, tuberculosis, foreign bodies, surgery, etc.). Some rare diseases such as airway stenosis caused by tracheomalacia, tracheal amyloidosis, etc. were not treated in the past, and some of them could barely be treated by open-heart surgery but serious postoperative complications occurred, and the patients’ postoperative lung function was significantly reduced, which not only cost a lot of money but also the patients’ postoperative quality of life was not high. By applying bronchoscopic interventional techniques such as cryo, argon knife, stent implantation and bronchial balloon dilatation to treat the above diseases, patients do not need open surgery, which is not only less costly but more importantly less painful and almost free of complications, and patients can have a good quality of life after surgery.