Anesthesia for Interventional Bronchoscopic Procedures

The evolving field of interventional bronchoscopy has seen a parallel evolution of anesthesia techniques for its various procedures. This chapter discusses the range of anesthesia techniques available for patients undergoing interventional bronchoscopy procedures. The indications, advantages and disadvantages of topical anesthesia, conscious sedation, monitored anesthesia care, or general anesthesia are described in detail. The chapter also depicts how to construct a bronchoscopy suite as a replica of the operating room to perform various interventional bronchoscopic procedures. A selection of tools in the field of anesthesiology, such as the laryngeal mask airway, short-acting anesthetics with minimal effect on respiratory and cardiovascular functions, and jet ventilators, that are well suited for interventional bronchoscopic procedures are presented.