Bronchophony

Bronchophony is an auscultatory examination of the lung in which high-frequency sounds from the lung tissue are transmitted to the chest wall by sound conduction. The patient is asked to hiss the word 66 several times while the examiner auscultates the lung at different points in lateral comparison.

The noise is attenuated or absent entirely due to airless rooms on the diseased side, as is the case with:

- Pleural effusion

- Pneumothorax

- Emphysema

- Atelectasis

- possibly tumour

The noise is amplified by a compression of the lung tissue on the diseased side, as in:

- Pneumonia

- Pulmonary edema (possibly)

- pulmonary fibrosis (but may also be normal)

1 Herold G et al (2018) Internal Medicine S 376

2 Loscalzo J et al (2011) In: Harrison's Lung Medicine and Intensive Care S 3