Interventional pulmonology in elderly in tuberculosis and respiratory diseases-challenges

With the increasing number of the elderly population, the number of people with respiratory diseases along with other comorbidities is also increasing. With the good number of available evidence, the use of interventional pulmonary procedures is also increasing. However, the studies on the safety and therapeutic benefit of these procedures in the elderly population are limited. Because of the paucity of data, we decided to do a systematic review of the scientific literature that is currently available, to boost confidence to do these procedures by clinicians. This review deals with the procedures that are commonly performed in elderly respiratory patients, their indications, safety and the diagnostic and therapeutic yield, and compares them with the results in the younger population. It also focuses on the safety of anaesthetic techniques used for these procedures in the elderly. The bottom line of this review is that there is no significant difference between the older and younger age groups with regard to the above parameters and that age alone is not a criterion to decide whether the patients may undergo interventional pulmonary procedures. • This article’s primarily focus on the Interventional procedures done in elderly. There are not many review articles on this subject. We have tried to include most of the major research publications on this subject. All major procedures done in elderly including bronchoscopy, EBUS, pleural procedures have been reviewed.