Flexible bronchoscopy in Ghana: initial experience in a tertiary hospital

INTRODUCTION: the use of flexible bronchoscopy in developing countries is limited. We report our initial experience and outcome with the use of flexible bronchoscopy at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in Ghana. This is the first reported case series of flexible bronchoscopy in Ghana. METHODS: a retrospective review of patients who had flexible bronchoscopy from 2017-2019 was analyzed. Patient demographics and outcomes were summarized using frequency distribution and percentages. RESULTS: we performed flexible bronchoscopies in 33 patients with mean age of 43 years. All patients were symptomatic at the time of presentation with the most common symptoms being chest pain (63.6%), dyspnea (57.6%) and cough (48.5%). The indication for bronchoscopy in most of the cases were suspected malignancy in 16 (48.5%) followed by infection 9 (27.3%), trauma 4 (12.1%) and others 4 (12.1%). We observed abnormal bronchoscopic findings in 25 (75.8%) of the cases with most of the pathologies in the right main bronchus. Twelve patients had toilet bronchoscopy, 6 had biopsy, 5 had no intervention and 4 patients had bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Culture and sensitivity results were available for 11 patients, of which 7 patients had negative results. Thirteen (13) malignancies and 11 inflammatory/infectious diseases were diagnosed in this case series. The mean procedure time was 32 minutes with mean hospital stay of 7 days. There was no complication or mortality in our series. Conclusion: flexible bronchoscopy is a safe procedure and indispensable in Ghana where there is an increasing incidence of lung diseases.