The role of mediastinoscopy in the diagnosis of mediastinal lymphadenopathy

Objective: The reported experience of axial mediastinoscopy (MDS) performed in a diagnostic purpose only (rather than prognostic) is limited. Therefore, we designated the present study to clarify morbidity, sensitivity and accuracy of MDS performed to diagnose various mediastinal lesions. Methods: We prospectively performed 400 MDS in a diagnostic purpose on 398 patients for: (1) isolated mediastinal adenopathies in 271 patients (group 1), and (2) mediastinal adenopathies associated with a pulmonary or a hilar lesion of unknown aetiology in 127 patients (group 2). In group 1, most of the patients were suspected to have a sarcoidosis, a tuberculosis or a lymphoma. In group 2, most of the patients were suspected to have a lung cancer. In both groups, the other current diagnostic procedure usually used in each pathology had failed to give an accurate diagnosis. Results: A total of 76% of the samples were performed in the right laterotracheal lymph node station, 12.5% in the lower subcarinal and superior subcarinal lymph node station and 7.8% in the left laterotracheal lymph node station. The per- and post-operative mortality rates were nil. The per-operative morbidity accounted for six cases (1.5% of the examinations). The post-operative morbidity accounted for three cases (0.75% of the examinations). MDS data radically modified the pre-operative suspected diagnosis in 74 patients (18.5% of the patients). There were 17 false negative results (4.3% of the patients). The global sensitivity of MDS was 94%, the global specificity was 100% and the accuracy was 95%. In group 1, the sensitivity was 96% and in group 2 it was 92%. Conclusion: According to the results, the few contraindications of the procedure and its low cost, we confirm that MDS is still the first choice procedure to diagnose lesions located in the axial mediastinum. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.