Bronchoscopy

Bronchoscopy is procedure used by your pulmonologist to look at your lungs, airways, bronchi, and more. These procedures can be diagnostic as well as interventional, and we offer the advanced bronchoscopy to include endobronchial ultrasound and navigational bronchoscopy.

Singing River Health System offers comprehensive diagnostic and interventional bronchoscopy Service at Ocean Springs Hospital in the endoscopy suites. Bronchoscopy is also performed at the bedside for critically ill patients in the ICU.

About the Procedure

Bronchoscopies are performed by one of our pulmonologists. During bronchoscopy, patients benefit from the expertise of a multidisciplinary team consisting of the staff pulmonologist, nursing staff, respiratory therapists, and anesthesia staff working in collaboration to assure patient safety and quality of care while the physician is performing the procedure and obtaining the appropriate samples.

Bronchoscopy is used for direct visualization of the bronchial tree – to obtain alveolar samples for microbiology and cytology and to obtain biopsies to diagnose malignancy and other inflammatory lung conditions such as sarcoidosis and pulmonary fibrosis. All standard bronchoscopy procedures like endobronchial and transbronchial biopsies, foreign body retrieval, and Wang needle biopsies are utilized and provided.

Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopy

Singing River is thrilled to offer the latest technology in bronchoscopy with Monarch Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopy. This technology allows for visualization of the outlying periphery of the lungs and may aid in earlier detection of lung cancer. Read more>

Endo-Bronchial Ultra-Sound (EBUS)

We are currently the only health system on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that is able to provide Endo-Bronchial Ultra-Sound (EBUS). During this procedure, the pulmonologist uses a bronchoscope with an ultrasound installed on the tip. The doctor can place the tool against the walls of the trachea and bronchi and can see lymph nodes that may have cancer in them and sometimes lung cancer that is outside the walls of the bronchi. They can then put a needle through that wall and retrieve a specimen for proper diagnosis.

The EBUS is becoming very important for pulmonologists to determine the stage of a patient’s cancer. They can decide how far advanced a cancer is by sampling the lymph nodes.

Navigational Bronchoscopy

This test is for accessing small spots which are not within the airways. Before, pulmonologists couldn’t access these spots unless they were very large. Now, they are able to access very small lesions that are out in the periphery.

Software guides the pulmonologist’s probe like a GPS to these small areas to retrieve needle biopsies.