Anesthesia for interventional bronchoscopic procedures

The evolving field of interventional bronchoscopy has seen a parallel evolution of anesthesia techniques for various procedures. This chapter discusses a range of available types of anesthesia for patients undergoing interventional bronchoscopy procedures. Indications, advantages and disadvantages of topical anesthesia, conscious sedation, monitored anesthesia care, or general anesthesia are described in detail. The chapter also describes the setup of bronchoscopy suites as a replica of the operating room to perform various interventional bronchoscopic procedures. A review of new advances in the field of anesthesiology, such as the laryngeal mask airway, short-acting anesthetics with minimal effect on respiratory and cardiovascular functions, and mechanical jet ventilators, which are well suited for interventional bronchoscopic procedures is presented.