Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management (Jul 2017)

The role of mediastinoscopy in the diagnosis of non-lung cancer diseases

  • Onat S,
  • Ates G,
  • Avci A,
  • Yildiz T,
  • Birak A,
  • Akgul Ozmen C,
  • Ulku R

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 939 – 943

Abstract

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Serdar Onat,1 Gungor Ates,2 Alper Avcı,3 Tekin Yıldız,4 Ali Birak,1 Cihan Akgul Ozmen,5 Refik Ulku1 1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Dicle University, 2Department of Chest Diseases, Memorial Hospital, Diyarbakir, 3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University, Adana, 4Department of Chest Diseases, Yuksek Ihtisas Education and Research Hospital, Bursa, 5Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey Background: Mediastinoscopy is a good method to evaluate mediastinal lesions. We sought to determine the current role of mediastinoscopy in the investigation of non-lung cancer patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathy.Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical parameters (age, gender, histological diagnosis, morbidity, mortality) of all patients without lung cancer who consecutively underwent mediastinoscopy in Hospital of Faculty of Medicine of Dicle University between June 2003 and December 2016.Results: Two-hundred twenty nine patients without lung cancer who underwent mediastino­scopy for the pathological evaluation of mediastinum during the study period were included. There were 156 female (68%) and 73 male (32%) patients. Mean age was 52.6 years (range, 16 to 85 years). Mean operative time was 41 minutes (range, 25 to 90 minutes). Mean number of biopsies was 9.3 (range, 5 to 24). Totally, 45 patients (19.6%) had previously undergone a nondiagnostic bronchoscopic biopsy such as transbronchial needle aspiration or endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration. Mediastinoscopy was diagnostic for all patients. Diagnosis included sarcoidosis (n=100), tuberculous lymphadenitis (n=66), anthracosis lymphadenitis (n=44), lymphoma (n=11) metastatic carcinoma (n=5), and Castleman’s disease (n=1); there was a diagnosis of silicosis in one patient and tymoma in one patient. Neither operative mortality nor major complication developed. The only minor complication was wound infection which was detected in three patients.Conclusion: Although newer diagnostic modalities are being increasingly used to diagnose mediastinal diseases, mediastinoscopy continues to be a reliable method for the investigation of mediastinal lesions. Keywords: mediastinoscopy, lymphadenopathy, granulomatous diseases, mediastinum, lymph node

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