JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v7i1.2606 jpsim.v7i1.2606 Original Research Frequency of Acute Complications after Fiber-Optic Bronchoscopy Procedure in a Tertiary Care Hospital Yaseen Ambreen Farooqi Rukhsana Javed rukhsanafarooqi1995@gmail.com * Younas Muhammad Rehman Karishma Ashraf Saadia Shahzad Shafqat Khyber Teaching Hospital /Khyber Medical College Peshawar University of The Punjab, Lahore *Correspondence: Rukhsana Javed Farooqi (rukhsanafarooqi1995@gmail.com) 10 03 2026 2026 7 1 28 32 18 07 2025 06 01 2026 17 02 2026 Copyright © 2026 The Author(s) 2026 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

To assess the frequency of acute complications in patients undergoing bronchoscopy presenting to a tertiary care facility.

 Methodology

A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Pulmonology unit of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, from 14-10-2022 to 14-04-2023 on 221 patients of either gender, aged between 16 to 70 years, who underwent bronchoscopy. The sample size was calculated using WHO sample size calculator; all the patients aged 16 to 70 years undergoing the bronchoscopy, regardless of their gender, were included in the study. Basic demographic features like age, gender, and occupation were recorded. A bronchoscopy was performed by a consultant using a fiberoptic bronchoscope Olympus BF type 1T150. After obtaining the required variables, the data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. The frequency of acute complications in patients undergoing bronchoscopy was determined.

 Results

The mean age of the patients was 42.91±14.99 years. The frequency of bronchospasm was 6 (2.7%), hypotension 2 (0.9%), Desaturation/Hypoxia 11 (5%), mild hemorrhage 18 (8.1%), moderate hemorrhage 3 (1.4%), severe hemorrhage 5 (2.3%), mild tachycardia 17 (7.7%), moderate tachycardia 2 (0.9%), severe tachycardia 3 (1.4%) and pulmonary edema 1 (0.5%).

 Conclusion

Fiber-optic bronchoscopy demonstrated a low rate of acute complications, predominantly mild hemorrhage and desaturation, with severe adverse events being rare, indicating the procedure’s relative safety in tertiary care settings.

 Keywords Bronchoscopy Complications Therapeutic Indications Pneumonia Ethics Statement

Ethics committee: Ethics Committee, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan. Approval number: 25/DME/KMC, dated April 21, 2022.

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