Endobronchial Ultrasound-Radial Probe-Assisted Cryobiopsy for Peripheral Lung Mass: A New Way for Better Yield?

Solitary pulmonary nodules pose a diagnostic challenge as traditional techniques like bronchoscopic transbronchial biopsies or percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsies suffer either from poor yield or unacceptable complications. The advent of endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-radial probe (RP) has helped to guide the operator to the lesion more accurately and thereby improve yield. Small biopsy forceps or cytology brushes can be passed through the guide sheath of the EBUS-RP, after removing the probe, to get specimens. However, a small specimen may sometimes prove inadequate for special molecular studies or genetic analysis. Recently, there have been feasibility reports of transbronchial cryobiopsies that can be safely performed with larger biopsy specimens. We report a case of solitary pulmonary nodules where EBUS-RP was used to guide a cryoprobe to get large transbronchial cryobiopsies successfully.