Background
Patients with lobar collapse often respond to intravenous antibiotics, physiotherapy and mucoactive agents. The use of flexible bronchoscopy as a ‘secondary’ treatment with 0.9% saline lavage and instillation of rhDNase is described sparsely in the literature. Serial bronchoscopic clearance of a lung collapse with rhDNase is documented in only one case series report in CF patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA)1.
Mycobacterium abscessus forms part of the Non-tuberculous Mycobacterium (NTM) group that can cause pulmonary disease resembling tuberculosis, especially in vulnerable hosts with underlying structural lung disease, such as cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis2.