Felix Zamora

Endobronchial Treatment of Bronchopleural Fistulas by Using Intrabronchial Valve System: A Case Series.

Air leaks, alveolopleural or bronchopleural fistulas, either spontaneous, iatrogenic, or postsurgical, can be difficult to treat, and if prolonged in spite of proper chest tube thoracostomy they may require surgical or chemical pleurodesis with variable success. Intrabronchial valve (IBV) treatment is minimally invasive and has a potential to shorten the duration of air leaks in well-selected patients with ongoing air leaks. The study included 19 patients with prolonged air leaks treated with IBVs spiration, with a total of 71 valves placed at a tertiary university hospital. Internal Board Review approval was obtained to use IBVs for off-label indication. IBVs were placed in desired airways with 100% accuracy in patients with air leaks without complications, including self-migration. All 19 patients with air leaks were initially treated with chest tube thoracostomy and in addition chemical pleurodesis in 2 and blood patch in a patient without success. After IBV placement, all patients but one with air leak had successful resolution of the air leak and removal of chest tube in a median of 3 days (range: 2-45 days). In conclusion, the use of IBVs for prolonged air leaks in various etiologies is effective and safe.

An Expectorated "Stent": An Unexpected Complication of EBUS-TBNA.

Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration has a low complication rate and is a cost-effective procedure for mediastinal staging and diagnosis when compared with the more invasive mediastinoscopy. There are increasing case reports of unexpected complications including equipment failures with and without significant medical consequences. Knowledge of complications, including those that are rare, is essential for the physician performing this minimally invasive procedure. We report a case of a retained foreign body from the unexpected separation of a distal spring/coil mechanism from the Olympus ViziShot Aspiration needle following early needle deployment within the working channel of the bronchoscope.

Intrabronchial Valve Treatment for Prolonged Air Leak: Can We Justify the Cost?

Background. Prolonged air leak is defined as an ongoing air leak for more than 5 days. Intrabronchial valve (IBV) treatment is approved for the treatment of air leaks. Objective. To analyze our experience with IBV and valuate its cost-effectiveness. Methods. Retrospective analysis of IBV from June 2013 to October 2014. We analyzed direct costs based on hospital and operating room charges. We used average costs in US dollars for the analysis not individual patient data. Results. We treated 13 patients (9 M/4 F), median age of 60 years (38 to 90). Median time from diagnosis to IBV placement was 9.8 days, time from IBV placement to chest tube removal was 3 days, and time from IBV placement to hospital discharge was 4 days. Average room and board costs were

A new needle on the block: EchoTip ProCore endobronchial ultrasound needle.

14,605 including all levels of care. IBV cost is

Endobronchial thermoplasty for asthma

2750 per valve. The average number of valves used was 4. Total cost of procedure, valves, and hospital stay until discharge was

Usefulness of lymphoid granulomatous inflammation culture obtained by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in a fungal endemic area

13,900. Conclusion. In our limited experience, the use of IBV to treat prolonged air leaks is safe and appears cost-effective. In pure financial terms, the cost seems justified for any air leak predicted to last greater than 8 days.

Nódulos pulmonares contraintuitivos en artritis reumatoide

Endobronchial ultrasound has become the first choice standard of care procedure to diagnose benign or malignant lesions involving mediastinum and lung parenchyma adjacent to the airways owing to its characteristics of being real-time and minimally invasive. Although the incidence of lung cancer has been decreasing, it is and will be the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the next few decades. When compared to other cancers, lung cancer kills more females than breast and colon cancers combined and more males than colon and prostate cancers combined. The type of lung cancer has changed in recent decades and adenocarcinoma has become the most frequent cell type. Prognosis of lung cancer depends upon the cell type and the staging at the time of diagnosis. The cell type and molecular characteristics of adenocarcinoma may allow individualized targeted treatment. Other malignant conditions in the mediastinum and lung (eg, metastatic lung cancers and lymphoma) can be biopsied using endobronchial ultrasound needles. Endobronchial ultrasound needle biopsies provides mostly cytology specimens due to its small sizes of needles (22 gauge or larger) which may not give enough tissue to make a definitive diagnosis in malignant (eg, lymphoma) or benign conditions (eg, sarcoidosis). EchoTip ProCore endobronchial needle released in early 2014 provides histologic biopsy material. Larger tissue biopsies may potentially provide a higher diagnostic yield and it eliminates mediastinoscopy or other surgical interventions. Here we aim to review bronchoscopic approach in the diagnosis of mediastinal lesions with emphasis of EchoTip ProCore needles.

Transbronchial Lung Cryobiopsy in the Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease: A Retrospective Single-center Experience

Asthma is an incurable chronic disease affecting approximately 24 million people in the United States. The hallmark features of asthma are reversible airflow obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, airway inflammation, bronchoconstriction, and excessive mucus secretion. Clinical symptoms include episodic or persistent breathlessness, wheezing, cough, or chest tightness/pressure. Forty-five percent of asthmatics continue to have yearly exacerbations and the disease is responsible for approximately 3,600 annual deaths. Pharmacologic advancements have continued to grow as the individual phenotypes of asthma are better delineated but there continues to be small population of asthmatics that are less responsive to pharmacologic therapy. Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is an innovative procedure targeted primarily at decreasing airway smooth muscle (ASM) which is considered by some to be a vestigial organ. Decreasing the ASM bulk decreases hyperresponsiveness and bronchoconstriction leading to decreased exacerbations, decreased cost on the healthcare system, and improvement in patient quality of life.

The first report of safety and feasibility of transbronchial cryoprobe lung biopsy in ARDS

Background and Objectives: Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is the procedure of choice for the evaluation of mediastinal/hilar lymph node enlargements. Granulomatous inflammation of the mediastinal/hilar lymph nodes is often identified on routine histology. In addition, mediastinal lymphadenopathy may be present with undiagnosed infection. We sought to determine the usefulness of routine cultures and histology for infectious etiologies in a fungal endemic area when granulomatous inflammation is identified. Materials and Methods: We identified 56 of 210 patients with granulomatous inflammation on EBUS-TBNA biopsies from October 2012 through October 2014. An onsite cytologist evaluated all biopsies and an additional TBNA pass for microbiologic stains and cultures were obtained in those with granulomatous inflammation. Results: Of the 56 patients with granulomatous inflammation, 20 patients had caseating (necrotizing) granulomas while noncaseating (nonnecrotizing) granulomas were detected in 36 of the remainder patients. In patients with caseating granulomas, fungal elements were identified in 6 of 20 (30%) patients (histoplasma; N = 5, blastomyces; N = 1) on Grocott methenamine silver (GMS) stain. Lymph node cultures identified 3 of 20 (20%) patients as being positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (N = 1), Histoplasma capsulatum (N = 1), and Blastomyces dermatitidis (N = 1). Among patients with noncaseating granulomas, only 2 out of 36 (5%) were positive for fungal elements on GMS stain, identified as Histoplasma, although the lymph node cultures remained negative. Conclusion: The incidence of granulomatous inflammation of mediastinal lymph nodes was 26.6% in our series. Of these patients, noncaseating granulomas were more common (64% vs. 36%). Infectious organisms, fungal or acid-fast bacilli (AFB), on either staining or lymph node culture were rarely identified in noncaseating granulomas, 5% and none, respectively. Caseating granulomas were more commonly associated with positive lymph node fungal stain and culture, 35% and 15%, respectively. In a fungal endemic area, lymph node staining and culture can be considered in cases with caseating granulomatous inflammation, if known at the time of biopsy.

Role for Sampling Nonpalpable Supraclavicular Lymph Nodes Found by Ultrasound at the Time of EBUS-TBNA: A Single-center Pilot Study

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries, with a prevalence of 0.5%–1% and an incidence of 5–50 per 100 000. Nodulosis is the most common extra-articular manifestation and occurs in 25% of RA patients.1,2 Pulmonary manifestations are broad and include necrobiotic nodules, infections, drug induced lung injury, obliterative bronchiolitis, interstitial lung disease, bronchiectasis, and malignancy. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is an overexpressed proinflammatory cytokine in RA patients, and the American College of Rheumatology has formal recommendations on the use of antiTNF biologic agents in RA patients with poor prognostic factors. We report a case of a 50-year-old female developing multifocal