NYMC Faculty Publications

The Value of Using Radial Endobronchial Ultrasound to Guide Transbronchial Lung Cryobiopsy

DOI

10.21037/jtd.2018.10.116

Journal Title

Journal of Thoracic Disease

First Page

329

Last Page

334

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

January 2019

Department

Medicine

Abstract

Conventional transbronchial biopsies have a low diagnostic yield for interstitial lung disease (ILD) and peripheral lung nodules due to crush artifact and smaller tissue samples. Transbronchial lung cryobiopsies (TBLC) circumvent these drawbacks but are associated with higher incidence of complications including life threatening airway bleeding and pneumothoraces. Radial probe endobronchial ultrasound (RP-EBUS) can be used during the TBLC for assessing the biopsy site prior to the cryobiopsy to avoid vasculature and to decrease the risk of complications. There is no standardized protocol for this technique and the available literature mostly consists of single center case reports/series. The aim of this review is to investigate the existing literature for RP-EBUS assisted TBLC for diagnosing both ILD and peripheral lung nodules. We will describe the techniques used and compare the diagnostic yield and complication rates with other modalities.

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