Patient and procedural characteristics
| Number of patients (%) N=102 | |
| Mean age (years) | 63.2±11.2 |
| Gender | |
| Male | 65 (64%) |
| Female | 37 (36%) |
| Race | |
| Asian | 3 (3%) |
| Black | 11 (11%) |
| Hispanic | 11 (11%) |
| White | 76 (75%) |
| Other | 1 (1%) |
| Smoking history | |
| Current or prior | 71 (70%) |
| Never | 31 (30%) |
| Baseline Zubrod (median, IQR) | 1 (1 to 2) |
| ASA score (median, IQR) | 3 (3 to 3) |
| Baseline utility (median, IQR) | 0.618 (0.569 to 0.699) |
| Baseline Borg (median, IQR) | 3.5 (2 to 5) |
| Weeks from cancer diagnosis to procedure (median, IQR) | 75 (7 to 252) |
| Urgency of procedure | |
| Elective | 81 (79%) |
| Urgent | 4 (4%) |
| Emergent | 17 (17%) |
| Comorbidities* | |
| Asthma | 3 (3%) |
| COPD | 14 (14%) |
| Cardiovascular | 26 (26%) |
| Diabetes | 24 (24%) |
| Second primary solid tumour | 11 (11%) |
| Increased bleeding risk | 1 (1%) |
| Cancer type | |
| Lung | 44 (43%) |
| Breast | 3 (3%) |
| Colon | 1 (1%) |
| Oesophageal | 5 (5%) |
| Renal | 19 (19%) |
| Sarcoma | 3 (3%) |
| Other solid tumour | 23 (23%) |
| Haematological malignancy | 4 (4%) |
| Initial cancer treatment | |
| Surgery | 38 (37%) |
| Chemotherapy | 27 (27%) |
| Radiation therapy | 13 (13%) |
| No treatment | 24 (24%) |
| Prior therapeutic bronchoscopy | 8 (8%) |
| Indication(s) for therapeutic bronchoscopy* | |
| Tracheoesophageal fistula | 4 (4%) |
| Haemoptysis | 21 (21%) |
| Malignant central airway obstruction | 102 (100%) |
| Number of bronchopulmonary segments obstructed (median, IQR) | 10 (8 to 18) |
| Location of most proximal airway obstruction>50% | |
| Trachea | 23 (23%) |
| Bilateral main stem | 7 (7%) |
| Right main bronchus | 28 (28%) |
| Left main bronchus | 18 (18%) |
| Bronchus intermedius | 11 (11%) |
| Lobar only | 15 (15%) |
| Obstruction type | |
| Endobronchial | 64 (63%) |
| Extrinsic | 27 (27%) |
| Mixed | 11 (11%) |
| Procedural methods | |
| Type of ventilation | |
| Jet ventilation | 93 (91%) |
| Volume cycled | 9 (9%) |
| Type of bronchoscopy | |
| Flexible only | 8 (8%) |
| Rigid and flexible (vs flexible only) | 94 (92%) |
| Treatment modalities used | |
| YAP laser | 17 (17%) |
| Electrocautery (snare, probe or forceps) | 32 (31%) |
| Argon plasma coagulation | 64 (63%) |
| Cryorecanalisation | 21 (21%) |
| Microdebrider | 26 (25%) |
| Rigid ‘coring’ | 11 (11%) |
| Dilation | 20 (20%) |
| Stent present on completion of first procedure | 34 (33%) |
| Stent type placed at first procedure (n=34) | |
| Aero | 22 (65%) |
| Ultraflex | 2 (6%) |
| Silicone tube | 1 (4%) |
| Y-Stent | 9 (26%) |
| Technical success (airway open>50%) | |
| Complete | 68 (67%) |
| Partial | 23 (23%) |
| Failed | 11 (11%) |
| Postprocedure treatment | |
| Surgery | 4 (4%) |
| Chemotherapy | 60 (59%) |
| Radiation therapy | 57 (56%) |
*Patients could have one or more comorbidities, so each comorbidity is dichotomous. For bronchoscopy indication, patients could have more than one indication for bronchoscopy, but one of them had to be for malignant central airway obstruction.