Prevention
Many complications can be avoided by careful patient selection. Critically ill patients with serious heart disease or metabolic conditions that need to be stabilized first are not good candidates for anesthesia; bronchoscopy is therefore not recommended for them. Animals in severe respiratory distress are not good candidates; however bronchoscopy may be indicated in these patients when an airway foreign body or some other type of structural airway disease is suspected that absolutely requires bronchoscopy for an accurate diagnosis or prompt therapeutic intervention. Patients with severe bleeding disorders, or with very low oxygen levels in their blood that do not respond to oxygen supplementation, should not undergo bronchoscopy.