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WITH THE development of thoracic medicine and surgery in the past decades, the desirability of tracheobronchial catheterization has become ever more frequent. Whereas in the beginning it was seldom used except for the introduction of lipiodal into the tracheobronchial tree, the procedure, in one form or another, can be adapted in a multitude of ways in modern diagnosis and treatment.
One point that is of interest to an endoscopist is the apparent difficulty which many members of the profession have in "getting the catheter into the trachea." Even among endoscopists themselves, the various methods of introduction of such a catheter run a gamut of instrumentation from blind intubation to the use of the more complicated laryngoscopes and bronchoscopes.