Oxygen desaturation during fiberoptic bronchoscopy.

A prospective study was performed to detect oxygen saturation (SaO2) during and following fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) in 50 patients. Twenty-five patients (group 1) underwent the procedure without and 25 (group 2) with supplemental oxygen. The SaO2 declined from the baseline value of 96.4% to 92.08% in group 1 and to 94.88% in group 2 after bronchoscopy alone. The decline was also noted when biopsy and broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) were performed, the lowest values being recorded during BAL. The result showed that the fall in SaO2 in group 2 was significantly less than that in group 1 (P < 0.05). SaO2 returned to baseline values after a mean time of 4.9 minutes in group 1 and 2.4 minutes in group 2, demonstrating the benefit of supplemental oxygen.