Bronchoscopic findings of endobronchial vascular lesions in patients with haemoptysis.

Cases of endobronchial vascular lesions observed with bronchoscope are presented. These lesions tend to be diagnosed erroneously as true endobronchial tumours so that biopsies are tried frequently. Consequently, a catastrophic accident of massive bleeding can complicate the condition if endobronchial vascular lesions are injured during bronchoscopic biopsy or brushing. We present three types of endobronchial vascular lesion: tubular bulging type, mass-like type and haemangioma type. Because bronchoscopic findings of submucosal tubular structure and visible pulsation are highly suggestive of endobronchial vascular lesion, there must be extreme caution to prevent fatal bleeding.