Fibreoptic bronchoscopy based bronchial infusion therapy in treating haemoptysis

Massive Haemoptysis is a potentially life-threatening condition which often requires treatment in an emergency room environment. This problem becomes more alarming in patients when fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) is used as a diagnostic tool. In this study 49 cases were included who either had constant blood mixed sputum (16 cases), or had one or more episodes of massive haemoptysis within 24 hours or during the FOB procedure (33 cases). Various non surgical therapies evolved in the past have been used by us to stop the bleeding in such cases using FOB. This study reports the results of fibreoptic bronchoscopy based procedures for lung extract (Hemoplastin) and botropase infusion therapy (BIT), as an alternative to thrombin and fibrinogen which are not commercially available in India.