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Correspondence
The benefit of taking a control sample when performing bronchoalveolar lavage
  1. Barry Linnane1,2,3,4,
  2. Donna Clarke2,
  3. Paula Murray5,
  4. Niamh O'Sullivan6,
  5. Colum Dunne3,
  6. Paul McNally2,4,7
  1. 1Cystic Fibrosis Unit, University Hospital, Limerick, Ireland
  2. 2National Children's Research Centre, Dublin, Ireland
  3. 3Graduate Entry Medical School and Centre for Interventions in Infection, Inflammation & Immunity (4i), University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  4. 4Study of Host Immunity and Early Lung Disease in CF (SHIELD CF), Dublin, Ireland
  5. 5Department of Surgery and Anaesthetics, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  6. 6Microbiology Department, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  7. 7Department of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Barry Linnane, Cystic Fibrosis Unit, University Hospital, Limerick, Ireland; barry.linnane{at}hse.ie

https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2015-207319

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    Contamination of bronchoscopes is well described.1–3 However, while cleaning and disinfecting bronchoscopes are clearly described in standardisation documents,1–3 the performance of a control sample prior to bronchoscopy is not suggested.4 ,5 Here, we offer an argument for such a procedure, supported by our experience with a 2-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis who underwent flexible bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).

    The bronchoscope in question had been used on a previous case on the same list, then supposedly cleaned and decontaminated, prior to …

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    Footnotes

    • Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge funding received from the National Children's Research Centre, Crumlin, Dublin 12.

    • Contributors BL and PM conceived the study, conducted the data collection and drafted the manuscript. BL takes responsibility for the overall content as guarantor. DC and PM conducted data collection and contributed to critical revision of the manuscript. CD contributed to critical revision of the manuscript. NO conducted data collection.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.