Abstract
Background and objectives: The term of malacia refers to softness and in medical terminolog refers to weakness of bone or cartilage. Laryngomalacia is the most common congenital abnormality of larynx and the patient may suffer from recurrent aspiration. Tracheomalacia refers to tracheal weakness and usually results in airway collapse due to cartilage defect. Bronchomalacia is used to describe the weakness and collapsibility of one or both main bronchus. All of the above mentioned diseases can be diagnosed by bronchoscopy but this method is invasive and may interfere with diagnosis, on the other hand it is intolerable in young individual and severly ill, and patients with coagulopathy. This study was conducted to show the role of virtual bronchoscopy in diagnosis of laryngo-tracheo-bronchomalacia.
Method and materials: In a peri- experimental study during 3years (Nov 2003-Oct 2006) 35 patients who had clinical sign and symptom of airway malacia were studied via virtual bronchoscopy.
Results: From 35 patients percentage of male and female was 65/7% and 34/3 %, respectively and the mean age was 3/7 ± 1/6 months. The result of virtual bronchoscopy for laryngomalcia, bronchomalacia, tracheomalacia, laryngotracheomalacia and laryngobronc¬homalacia was 42.8% ,25.7 %, 20 % , 8.5 % and 2.9 %, respectively.
Conclusion: Virtual bronchoscopy because of non-invasive and speed imaging and excellent ability of assessment of airway stenosis, can be considered as substitution for bronchoscopy.