Lung cancer is the largest cause of cancer mortality in the United States, and it has a high proclivity to spread to the brain. Primary lung cancer is the major cause of brain metastasis, according to several studies. Many patients with suspected lung cancer will come with brain metastases, necessitating bronchoscopy for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, especially endobronchial ultrasonography transbronchial needle aspiration, which can both detect and stage lung cancer. There is fear that general anaesthesia and bronchoscopic treatments would raise intracranial pressures and cause neurological problems. Between 2015 and 2018, we did retrospective research at Keck Hospital of the University of Southern California to assess the safety of conducting bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia in patients with known space-occupying brain lesions. Overall, 10% of patients who had bronchoscopy had brain lesions at the time of the operation, which is consistent with earlier studies that found rates ranging from 10% to 20%. In patients with brain lesions, the overall complication rate with general anaesthesia and bronchoscopy was 21%; however, only 3.5 per cent of patients experienced serious adverse events requiring intensive care unit admission and intervention. There was no difference in problems between individuals who had bronchoscopy with and without brain metastases.
These findings show that the risk of severe complications in patients with space-occupying brain lesions who receive bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia is comparable to that in patients without brain lesions, demonstrating that bronchoscopy may be done safely in this patient population.
