Cryobiopsy of the Lung Promises a High Degree of Safety for Patients

KREMS, Austria - March 5, 2022 - PRLog -- For the first time, the high safety and low mortality of a still novel, simpler procedure for lung biopsies has also been shown in a European context. The so-called transbronchial cryobiopsy was performed in 75 patients in an Austrian clinic as part of  diagnostic procedures. The occurrence of side effects and mortalities were then monitored and recorded over a period of 90 days. In addition to the high safety of cryobiopsy, a lower mortality of this method was also shown in comparison to surgical lung biopsy. The results have now been published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease.

The lung tissue is well protected in the chest cavity - which unfortunately also makes diagnostic methods more difficult. If tissue samples are needed, surgical lung biopsy is a proven procedure. However, the chest cavity must be accessed from the outside, which is time-consuming, bears a certain risk and is expensive, too. A recently developed procedure - transbronchial cryobiopsy - is simpler and cheaper. Here, a probe is inserted through the trachea and bronchi, and a piece of lung tissue is frozen to the probe and then removed. Up to now, there has been only scant data on the safety of this procedure. Now a team from the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences Krems (KL Krems) has collected prospective data on safety and mortality - and found promising results.

Original publication: Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy: prospective safety evaluation and 90-day mortality after a standardised examination protocol. K. Hackner, A. Stadler, F. Schragel, V. Klamminger, B. Ghanim, A. Varga, P. Errhalt, Ther Adv Respir Dis, Vol. 16: 1–9 https://doi.org/10.1177/17534666221077562