Equal and safe use of flexible bronchoscopy in intensive care units

Extract Bronchoscopy has evolved tremendously since Gustav Killian used a rigid oesophagoscope to remove a pork bone from a farmer's airway in 1876 1. In 1967, Shigeto Ikeda presented the first flexible fibreoptic bronchoscope; in 1987, Pentax developed the video bronchoscope; and in 2002, Olympus equipped the tip of the video bronchoscope with a small ultrasound transducer and the endobronchial ultrasound scope was born 1. Alongside these four revolutions, there have been countless evolutions over the past 150 years. The scopes have become smaller, manoeuvrability has gradually been perfected, image quality is constantly improving, and many companies have produced single-use bronchoscopes that remove the need for reprocessing and the risk of cross-contamination.