Approach for the interventional bronchoscopic treatment methods applied in tracheobronchial obstruction

Bronchoscopy used commonly in the diagnosis and staging of the lung cancer was applied successfully in the palliative treatment of the patients with lung cancer. The patients with tracheobronchial obstruction may develop many symptoms like dyspnea, cough and haemoptysis, and atelectasis and pneumonia but these symptoms were recovered with applying interventional bronchoscopic methods. These methods are laser therapy, electrocautery, argon plasma coagulation, cryotherapy, brachytherapy, photodynamic therapy and airway stents. The obstructed airway was reopened by these bronchoscopic methods and dyspnea, atelectasis and post-obstructive pneumonia were relieved. In addition, with establishment of the airway patency, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may be applied to the patients with lung cancer. The treatment of tracheobronchial obstruction was achieved a thorough evaluation of the etiology, physiology, diagnostic and treatment options of the disease and a multidisciplinary team approach including anesthesiology, medical oncology, thoracic surgery, radiology and interventional pulmonology. In this multidisciplinary team approach, all of the doctors dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer should know interventional bronchoscopic methods, endobronchial treatment, and indications of these procedures. The aim of this review is to fresh our knowledge about the interventional bronchoscopic treatment methods in patients with lung cancer.