Endobronchial ultrasound: Basic principles

Abstract

Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is a diagnostic technique minimally invasive that has revolutionized diagnostic bronchoscopy, because it allows the physician to see beyond the bronchial wall. EBUS has proven highly effective, eliminating the need for additional procedures, to evaluate the regional extension of lymph node involvement in bronchogenic carcinoma, to identify and localize mediastinal structures adjacent to the airways, to localize solid structures in the lung, and to stage the depth of tumor invasion in the bronchial wall and, in the diagnosis of infections, inflammatory diseases that affect the lungs, such as sarcoidosis or other cancers like lymphoma causing enlarged lymph nodes in the chest. There are two imaging modalities: radial and linear. Linear EBUS permits a real-time guided needle aspiration and sample mediastinal, and parabronchial structures and radial EBUS detect solitary pulmonary lesions, under fluoroscopy. Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of the EBUS procedure appears adequate to support the use of this procedure, and linear EBUS has become part of the study protocols and recommendations of different scientific societies for the staging of mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes in patients with suspected or known bronchopulmonary neoplasm.