Deaths and complications associated with transbronchial lung biopsy

A questionnaire requesting information about complications resulting from transbronchial lung biopsy was sent to 178 directors of respiratory disease training programs in the United States and Canada. Ninety-six questionnaires (54%) were returned, listing 5,450 transbronchial lung biopsy procedures. Thirteen deaths were directly or temporally related to the procedure. Nine patients died from hemorrhage. Eight of these patients had underlying diseases or were receiving drugs known to affect hemostasis. One also had pulmonary hypertension. One patient died from a tension pneumothorax that rapidly progressed more than two hours after the procedure. Analysis of the exact data, which were available for 2,628 procedures, indicated that pneumothorax, hemorrhage exceeding 50 ml, and death occurred in 5.5, 1.3, and 0.20% of procedures, respectively.