Flexible Bronchoscopy Combined With an Airway Maneuver for Foreign Material Removal Under Invasive Mechanical Ventilation

We present a case of a patient who had aspirated a massive amount of food, leading to cardiac arrest, and had to be intubated because of severe hypoxemia. The hypoxemia persisted, regardless of the recruitment maneuvers, performance of flexible bronchoscopy, and suctioning through the ventilating tu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCurēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 15; no. 8
Main Authors Zakynthinos, Georgios E, Mpaggeas, Athanasios, Deskata, Konstantina, Doudakmanis, Christos, Makris, Demosthenes
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Palo Alto Cureus Inc 28.08.2023
Cureus
Subjects
Bronchoscopy
Case reports
Emergency Medicine
Food
Foreign bodies
Intubation
Oxygen saturation
Patient safety
Pulmonology
Respiratory failure
Suctioning
Ventilators
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:We present a case of a patient who had aspirated a massive amount of food, leading to cardiac arrest, and had to be intubated because of severe hypoxemia. The hypoxemia persisted, regardless of the recruitment maneuvers, performance of flexible bronchoscopy, and suctioning through the ventilating tube, because we were unable to reach the left main bronchus (LMB), where the greatest amount was concentrated. However, we managed to overcome this problem by using a prototype handling technique to catheterize the LMB directly with the usage of the flexible bronchoscope. We introduce this handling technique for the removal of foreign material from the LMB, which will probably be really useful in emergency situations, because of its simplicity and effectiveness.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.44239