Comparison of transbronchial lung biopsy yield between standard forceps and electrocautery hot forceps in XXXX .

@entity1707 @entity548
BACKGROUND: Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) is a commonly performed bronchoscopic procedure. Previous studies have suggested that larger biopsy forceps may improve diagnostic yield; however, the risk of @entity548 associated with larger samples may be increased. The hot forceps are large forceps that are connected to an electrocautery system to minimize @entity548 at the time of biopsy. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the hot forceps for improvement in biopsy size and the number of sampled alveoli. METHODS: TBLBs were performed in 2 @entity1707 using one type of the forceps, followed by the other forceps 24 h later. Electrocautery was applied from closure of the forceps to retrieval of the sample. A blinded pathologist measured the size of each sample in its longest dimension and calculated the total alveolar content within the largest cross-section from each biopsy. RESULTS: A total of 74 biopsies were collected using each forceps type. Alveolar tissue was present in 25/74 and 26/74 of the biopsies using the hot and conventional forceps, respectively. There was no difference in the size of biopsies collected (2.10 +/- 1.10 vs. 1.83 +/- 0.94 mm; p = 0.164) or in the amount of alveoli per sample (343.2 +/- 402.4 vs. 439.5 +/- 463.5 alveoli; p = 0.433) for hot and conventional forceps, respectively. There was no artifact related to the use of electrocautery, and @entity548 was minimal using either forceps system. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the electrocautery hot forceps for TBLB did not result in improvement of the size of biopsies or the amount of collected alveolar tissue in healthy @entity1707 .
