We had always been told that it was the test to have and that it would tell the whole story. For years my daughters doc recommended having this procedure done (her throat cultures were always negative) until she turned 17 and the pseudo showed up and after doing several inhaled and oral med combinations it continued to show up- so IV meds were suggested along with a bronc. We decided to go ahead and have it done and the bronc result was negative. We thought YIPPEE! However we were informed that it was possibly a false negative. What a let down after years of being told that this was the test to tell all and now we go through with it and we are being told this. Confused! We would be very interested and would appreciate hearing about what others have been told by their docs concerning the issue about conculsiveness of bronc results.
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how conculsive is a bronchoscopy?
- Thread starter anonymous
- Start date
There does not seem to be a clear answer to this question. The medical literature contains articles that state the standard protocol is to do several throat cultures and if they aren't convincing, do a bronch. But, there are other articles with data showing that bronchs are no more effective at verifying pseudo than sputum cultures. I had one pulmonologist that performed them fairly regularly, and my current pulmo has only done one on me in 10 years. Personally, I am inclined to agree with my current pulmo that the risk of pushing the infection into other areas of my lungs via the bronch procedure just isn't worth it.
I'm sorry there isn't something definitive. I can sense your frustration. Have they done any sputum cultures, or isn't there enough sputum to test? I've never had a throat culture for it - only sputum cultures.
I'm sorry there isn't something definitive. I can sense your frustration. Have they done any sputum cultures, or isn't there enough sputum to test? I've never had a throat culture for it - only sputum cultures.
This is the original poster- This is a really frustrating ordeal because we want to feel like we have made the right decision about having this procedure done. We held off for years due to the fact of concern about it being invasive! To answer the question about having a sputum culture-I really dont seem to have any to cough up so I get a throat culture.
Scarlett81
New member
I've had 2 or 3 bronch's when I was much younger. They weren't to see what 'buig' I had, they were just to suction out mucus. So I can't help you with the big testing. I've had bug testing, and they always just do a sputum culture which seems to be fine. I've never really heard of a bronch being neccesary to ID which bug you have. Maybe they just want to get in as deep as possible?
I don't know the age of this patient, or how long you've had to deal with this. But, you should try to get used to the fact that there will always be times when you have to take a chance and do procedures or meds that you might not need. Sometimes I'm more tired, and my PFTs come back slightly lower. And the doc says I need IVs. But I don't feel like I need IVs. So do I do them, and possibly go through that uneccesarily or take a shot and skip? Hard situations. It sucks.
I just had an endoscopy and colonoscpy b/c my doc does them yearly for some of her patients-I didn't want to do it, I didn't really have nay problems. But I did it anyway-and they found a pre-cancerous cell condition!
So you never know. You're going to have to do uneccesary procedures sometimes to be on the safe side. But its so frustrating when the test comes back inconclusive or false negative. SUCKS!
Good Luck!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
I don't know the age of this patient, or how long you've had to deal with this. But, you should try to get used to the fact that there will always be times when you have to take a chance and do procedures or meds that you might not need. Sometimes I'm more tired, and my PFTs come back slightly lower. And the doc says I need IVs. But I don't feel like I need IVs. So do I do them, and possibly go through that uneccesarily or take a shot and skip? Hard situations. It sucks.
I just had an endoscopy and colonoscpy b/c my doc does them yearly for some of her patients-I didn't want to do it, I didn't really have nay problems. But I did it anyway-and they found a pre-cancerous cell condition!
So you never know. You're going to have to do uneccesary procedures sometimes to be on the safe side. But its so frustrating when the test comes back inconclusive or false negative. SUCKS!
Good Luck!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">