Transbronchial Cryobiopsy in Diffuse Parenchymal Lung Diseases in a Community Medical Center

Transbronchial cryobiopsy (TBC) has recently emerged for the assessment of diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD) as a less invasive procedure than surgical lung biopsy. The diagnostic usefulness and safety of TBC is still controversial.

To evaluate the safety and diagnostic yield of TBC in a peripheral community medical center.

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of all patients with DPLD who underwent TBC from January 2015 to January 2020.

The study comprised 97 patients. Three samples were taken from each patient with an average diameter of 0.59 cm. The histologic diagnostic yield was 54% (52 of 97 procedures). The most frequent histopathologic diagnoses were usual interstitial pneumonia in 13 patients (13%). Bleeding was observed in 19 cases (19%) and only one patient (1%) had severe bleeding. Pneumothorax developed in seven patients (7%) and one patient (1%) suffered from Interstitial lung disease exacerbation.

TBC was found to be safe; however, the diagnostic yield was rather low compared to other studies, which emphasizes the need for interstitial lung disease centers with expert in this field.