الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Background: Transbronchial lung biopsy with flexible forceps is the most commonly used technique in diagnosis of diseases diffusely involving the lung parenchyma. Recently, transbronchial lung biopsy using the flexible cryoprobe (cryo transbronchial lung biopsy) has also been reported. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to show the feasibility of using a cryoprobe to obtain lung biopsies during flexible bronchoscopy. Methods: This study was conducted in chest department, Kasr Alainy hospital, Cairo university. Seventeen patients with radiographic signs of diffuse parenchymal lung disease were selected for transbronchial biopsy. During flexible bronchoscopy, the flexible cryoprobe was introduced into the selected bronchus. Once brought into position, the probe was cooled and then retracted with the frozen lung tissue being attached on the probe{u2019}s tip. The tissue was processed for histopathology. Results: The overall diagnostic yield of bronchoscopic cryobiopsy was 91.4% (16/17). The most frequent diagnosis was hypersensitivity pneumonitis.The complications of cryo-transbronchial lung biopsy included pneumothorax (11.8%) and bleeding (5.9%). Conclusions: Transbronchial cryobiopsy is a novel technique which allows to obtain large biopsy samples of lung parenchyma that exceed the size and quality of forceps biopsy samples |