• Rashed Shkeiri, Sonia Schneer, Amir Avarmovich, and Yochai Adir.
• Pulmonary Institute, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, affiliated with the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
• Isr Med Assoc J. 2020 Dec 1; 22 (12): 781-783.

BackgroundTransbronchial cryobiopsy (TBC) has recently emerged for the assessment of diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD) as a less invasive procedure than surgical lung biopsy. The diagnostic usefulness and safety of TBC is still controversial.ObjectivesTo evaluate the safety and diagnostic yield of TBC in a peripheral community medical center.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the charts of all patients with DPLD who underwent TBC from January 2015 to January 2020.ResultsThe study comprised 97 patients. Three samples were taken from each patient with an average diameter of 0.59 cm. The histologic diagnostic yield was 54% (52 of 97 procedures). The most frequent histopathologic diagnoses were usual interstitial pneumonia in 13 patients (13%). Bleeding was observed in 19 cases (19%) and only one patient (1%) had severe bleeding. Pneumothorax developed in seven patients (7%) and one patient (1%) suffered from Interstitial lung disease exacerbation.ConclusionsTBC was found to be safe; however, the diagnostic yield was rather low compared to other studies, which emphasizes the need for interstitial lung disease centers with expert in this field.

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