Methods
The pediatric bronchoscopy survey was an online survey via an email link. It was sent to members of the Respiratory Chapter of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) and those performing pediatric flexible bronchoscopy were asked to complete the survey. The same survey email was also sent to members of Indian Chest Society of adult pulmonologists to know if they were doing flexible bronchoscopy in children. Authors also sent emails to their personal contacts doing pediatric flexible bronchoscopy.
The survey had 95 questions in following seven domains: (A) Demographics, (B) Patient preparation, (C) Sedation/Anesthesia, (D) Bronchoscopy procedure, (E) Bronchoscope cleaning, (F) Monitoring during and after procedures, and (G) Complications (Supplementary file S1). The questions for survey were decided by bronchoscopy guidelines and questions used in previous adult bronchoscopy surveys.
A “Google form” was created using Google interface for the online survey. Questions were yes/no type, multiple option questions and space for additional information was also provided. A trial run was done where authors themselves completed the survey to identify any difficulty in completing the survey. The survey link was sent within 2 weeks to all and kept open for the next 3 months to collect the responses. A reminder was sent after 1 month. The participation in the survey was voluntary and no incentives were offered to the participants for responding. The study was approved by Institute Ethics Committee.