Respiratory Care
Flowers Hospital provides a wide variety of diagnostic, preventive and treatment services for diseases that affect breathing and lung function. Pulmonary doctors (pulmonologists) work collaboratively with an interdisciplinary group of specialists, including cardiologists, interventional radiologists, surgeons and other health care professionals to provide care.
Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy
The pulmonologists at Flowers Hospital perform electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB), a procedure that offers patients a minimally-invasive option to locate, enable biopsy and plan treatment for a lesion (spot) detected deep in the lung.
ENB is an option for patients who have a hard-to-reach lesion on their lung. The ENB procedure combines GPS-like technology with a catheter-based system that uses the patient's natural airways to access lesions that were previously hard to reach. Typically a patient with a spot on their lung had the options of major surgery to remove a section of the lung, bronchoscopy (which does not reach lesions deep in the lung), needle biopsy or watchful waiting.
The ENB procedure is typically performed in an outpatient setting and its unique approach may increase the chances that a patient will safely get a diagnosis and begin treatment, if needed.
For more information, talk to a pulmonologist who performs the ENB procedure.