Cryoprobe transbronchial lung biopsy: How we do it?

Abstract

Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) is commonly utilized for diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases. TBLB has a high yield in granulomatous interstitial lung diseases like sarcoidosis, but small size of biopsies limits its utility in idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. Surgical lung biopsy provides large size tissue, but there is associated morbidity, longer hospital stay, the risk of air leak, and mortality. Cryoprobe-TBLB, a relatively newer diagnostic procedure, provides larger biopsies than TBLB that are usually crush artifact free and enable the pathologist to provide diagnosis with greater confidence. We describe our technique of performing cryoprobe-TBLB.