What is done during bronchoscopy?

That depends: Its a tool used to diagnose (rarely to treat) lung diseases from pneumonia in people with suppressed immunity, to lung cancer, to many obscure lung diseases. It is simply a flexible endoscope passed into the airway usually via the nose, but can go via mouth too. It permits you to examine the large airways directly. More info here; http://tinyurl.Com/apjfr2b.

Possibly a lot: There are two broad categories of bronchoscopy, rigid and flexible fiber-optic. Agree with dr. Arenberg. It's a tool used to diagnose and possibly treat diseases of the lungs and tissues arround the airway. There are multiple "instruments" that may be paired with bronchoscopy including but not limited to ultrasound (ebus), em-navigation, laser, biopsy graspers, etc...

Depends: on why it's done. If it's to clean out a mucous plug, then usually just suctioning. If it's done to look for infection, then maybe a bronchioalveolar lavage (BAL) and potentially biopsy. If its done looking for cancer, then biopsies and BAL. Brushes are also commonly done to get the lung tissue cells to be looked at for cancer.