Clinical, radiological, and histopathological characteristics of patients with endobronchial lesions on fiberoptic bronchoscopy at a tertiary care hospital in central Karnataka region

Endobronchial lesions, originating from the bronchial wall, range from benign to malignant and include types such as squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and small cell carcinoma. They usually have similar clinical and radiological presentation making it difficult to distinguish them from one another. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy is one of the important tools for diagnosing and sampling of endobronchial lesions. Thus, in this study, we aim to identify Histopathological characteristics of lesions, besides noting their clinical and radiological profile. To evaluate the clinical, radiological, and histopathological profile of endobronchial characteristics identified through fiberoptic bronchoscopy. This was a retrospective study of Clinical, radiological and Histopathological characteristics of 29 patients, who had endobronchial lesions on fiberoptic bronchoscopy during the period of March 2020 - July 2023 at Respiratory medicine department, BMC&H, Chitradurga The majority (62.5%) of patients were between ages of 46 and 60, most (65.51) of them being males. Majority of the patients were smokers (55.17%). On bronchoscopy, Globular type of lesion (46.4%) was most common endobronchial lesion detected. A mass lesion (62.06%) was the most common radiological finding. Histo-pathologically, majority of lesions were malignant (96.55%) with Squamous cell carcinoma (37.5%) being the most common lesion. Most lesions were malignant, majority of which, presented radiologically as mass, encountered most often in males, as risk factors like smoking are common in males. Most common endobronchial lesion was an exophytic lesion and commonly involving the right main bronchus. As squamous cell carcinoma is central in location and frequently associated with smoking, it was the most common (42.85%) histopathological variant.