Prevention of Flexible Bronchoscopy-Associated Infection

Flexible bronchoscopy (FB) is one of the most common and useful procedures performed by chest clinicians, with > 500,000 procedures performed annually in the United States.¹ FB is performed frequently in immunocompromised patients and in health-care settings where exposures to increasingly virulent and drug-resistant microorganisms may occur. Recently reported bronchoscopyassociated infections (BAIs) and pseudoinfections^1–4 potentially affected > 800 patients and included instances in which clinically significant infections and fatalities might have been related to the procedure. Such outbreaks have generated major concerns regarding the possibility of iatrogenic infections due to FB and underscore the importance of reappraising this problem and optimizing preventive practices.^5,6 The potential sequelae of BAI and pseudoinfection are enormous. In addition to the possible morbidity and mortality associated with true infections, such events require expenditure of considerable time and resources for the careful assessment of the vast majority of instances in which no infections or harm to patients have occurred.

Download Consensus Statement