With the development of pulmonary surgery in recent years, and especially the technique of segmental resection, a few cases have been encountered in which all the preoperative information desired cannot be obtained by bronchoscopy or bronchography alone. In an effort to solve some of these problems, tracheobronchial bougies1 have been developed (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1.—Intrabronchial bougies.
Fig. 2.—Intrabronchial bougies with the tips rounded and blunted.
The bougies are a modification of the familiar ureteral bougies, the tips of which have been blunted and rounded (Fig. 2). They are 61 cm. in length. The sizes are 4 F. through 12 F. so that actual diameters of small bronchi or diameters of stenosed bronchial openings may be quantitatively recorded when they are too small or too far in the periphery to be measured by the intrabronchial caliper.2
The bougies may either be used through a bronchoscope or may be passed