Feasibility of bronchoscopy for peripheral and mediastinal lesions as a single procedure

Background and Aims: Prompt diagnosis and staging of lung cancer are important to rapidly determine treatment options. The feasibility of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) and bronchoscopic sampling of peripheral lesions in a single procedure was evaluated. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study on patients who underwent bronchoscopy at our hospital from January 2015 to December 2018 for suspected cancer. We compared the diagnostic yields among bronchoscopy procedures for both peripheral and coexistent mediastinal lesions in a single procedure (group 1), for peripheral lesions alone (group 2), and for mediastinal lesions alone (group 3). Results: During the study period, a total of 1,131 patients underwent bronchoscopy; 366 were for peripheral lesions alone (group 2) and 195 were by EBUS-TBNA (49 in group 1 and 85 in group 3). The diagnostic yield for mediastinal lesions was not significantly different between groups 1 and 3 (95.9% vs. 92.9%, respectively, p = 0.71), but the diagnostic yield for peripheral lesions was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 (77.6% vs. 62.6%, p Conclusion: Bronchoscopic sampling of both peripheral and mediastinal lesions in a single procedure was feasible and may increase the diagnostic yield.