Assessing the Accuracy, Safety, and Tolerance of Office-Based Endoscopic Biopsies for Laryngopharyngeal Lesions

The increasing prevalence of office-based biopsies (OBBs) for diagnosing laryngopharyngeal lesions underscores the need for a comprehensive evaluation of their clinical utility. This study aims to investigate the accuracy, safety, and tolerance of these procedures in an office setting.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of 490 OBBs performed with distal chip, working channel endoscopes. Histologic accuracy was assessed by comparing OBB results with operating room biopsies or, for benign lesions, by monitoring endoscopic findings over time.

The majority of OBBs were taken primarily from the glottic larynx (52.4%), supraglottic larynx (17.3%), and base of tongue (14.5%). Procedural intolerance led to noncompletion in 4.1% of cases due to gag reflex (17 cases) and laryngospasm (3 cases); no serious complications were reported. OBBs guided management in 88.4% of cases. Histologically, 33.3% of cases were benign, 27.6% pre-malignant, 37.6% malignant, and 1.5% yielded inadequate specimens. Thirteen lesions (8.3%) initially identified as benign and 37 pre-malignant lesions (28.5%) were found to be malignant upon further biopsy. For invasive malignancies/severe dysplasia, OBBs showed a sensitivity of 89.4%, specificity of 95.8%, positive predictive value of 97.4%, negative predictive value of 83.4%, and accuracy of 91.7%.

Office-based biopsies of laryngopharyngeal lesions are safe, generally well-tolerated, and offer reliable diagnostic results in appropriate clinical settings. Severe dysplasia or carcinoma in situ identified on OBB should prompt suspicion for invasive malignancy.