Endobronchial inflammatory polyp as a rare complication of endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration

Endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) offers a minimally invasive option for staging the mediastinum in suspected lung cancer but also in the diagnosis of mediastinal lesions accessible from the airways. EBUS-TBNA has been widely used for the evaluation of mediastinal and hilar lesions for several reasons, such as its minimally invasive nature, high diagnostic accuracy, needle aspiration under real-time visualization and excellent safety profile. Several recent studies have demonstrated that EBUS-TBNA have diagnostic accuracy equivalent to mediastinoscopy and in fact higher for certain lymph node stations. The present case report presents endobronchial inflammatory polyp as a complication after EBUS-TBNA in patients with tuberculous lymphadenitis and discusses the possible etiology of this complication, as well as implications for further application of this technology in patients with tuberculous lymphadenitis. (C) 2010 Published by European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.