BENIGN BRONCHIAL NEOPLASMS: BRONCHOSCOPIC ASPECTS

Abstract

Since a careful search of the literature reveals that the only cases of benign neoplasm of the bronchus diagnosed, except post mortem, were diagnosed bronchoscopically, one is obliged to concede that the only means of making a definite diagnosis of benign neoplasm in the bronchus, in a living patient, is by bronchoscopy. The value of this method lies in the fact that objective evidence can be obtained by direct inspection of the bronchi. Without positive data, thus obtained, one must rely on diagnosis by inference. Up to the present time ten cases of benign neoplasm of the bronchus have been reported as diagnosed post mortem, and sixteen cases have been reported as diagnosed bronchoscopically, making a total of twenty-six cases. This would lead one to recognize the fact that while benign neoplasms of the bronchus are infrequent, they are by no means rare. BRONCHOSCOPIC DIAGNOSIS Jackson,¹ in 1922,