Rigid bronchoscopy in mainland China: present state and perspectives

Rigid bronchoscopy (RB) was firstly used in Europe almost 120 years ago (1). Chan-Yeung (2) detailed the development history of RB and flexible bronchoscopy (FB) and emphasized the lower utilization rate of RB at present than that in the past word-widely. We agree that the current utilization of RB is significantly less frequent than that of FB all over the world, yet as an important therapeutic tool，RB is not only growing, but also becoming a standard choice in a certain sense.