This presentation will help all the young pulmonologists to map the airway road map before the start doing bronchoscopy.

1. Bronchoscopy
Nomenclature
Dr. Kaustubh Mohite

2. Topics to be covered:
• Lung growth theories
• Basics of Nomenclature
• Bronchopulmonary Segments.
• Tracheo-bronchial tree

3. Lung growth theories:
Symmetrical bilateral lungs

7. Basics of Nomenclature:
Nomenclature Meaning
R Right
L Left
S Segment
B Bronchus

9. Right Lung

10. Left Lung

12. • The nomenclature of bronchi is based on the direction in which
the lungs with the bronchi are located.
• The 3 principles of the bronchi nomenclature are :
• Cranial side Caudal side
• Dorsal (posterior) Ventral (anterior)
• Lateral side Medial side

13. • By the above principles:
Bronchi Named as
Segmental bronchi
(2nd gen bronchus)
1,2,3……
Subsegmental bronchi
(3rd gen)
a, b, c,……
Sub-subsegmental bronchi
(4th gen)
I, ii, iii, iv, ……..
Sub-sub-subsegmental bronchi
(5th gen)
⍺, β, ɣ, ……
Sub-sub-sub-subsegmental bronchi (6th
gen)
x, y

16. • So when we say RB1a ii ⍺ :
• Right Bronchus
• Upper lobe apical bronchus
• 1st sub-subsegmental bronchus (3rd gen)
• 2nd sub-sub-subsegmental bronchus (4th gen)
• 1st sub-sub-sub-subsegmental bronchus (5th gen)

18. Take home message:
• It is very important to know the bronchoscopic nomenclature in order
to define the site of anatomic abnormality.
• By following the three simple rules of nomenclature, it is very easy to
remember the names of the bronchi.
• One should be trained to see the normal bronchial branches to find
out abnormal variants.