Abstract
Background and study aims
One can approach mediastinal pathology via esophageal ultrasound (EUS) and/or endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS). It has been suggested that EUS is better tolerated by patients. If so, EUS might be the procedure of choice when suspect lesions are accessible via EUS. We studied procedural characteristics of EUS with fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) and EBUS with transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) to see how they differed.Patients and methods
Retrospective review of consecutive EBUS and EUS procedures performed on patients over nine months. One hundred fifty-five procedures were analyzed (61 EUS, 73 EBUS, 21 EUS + EBUS). For EUS, EBUS, and EUS + EBUS, 1.4, 2.0 and 2.5 sites (mean) were sampled, respectively. EUS required approximately one-half of the time of EBUS or the combined procedures; 13.1 vs. 24.1 and 26.9 min, respectively (P Conclusions
EUS involved statistically significant economies of time and sedation. This has implications with respect to safety and productivity. When applicable, EUS is the procedure of choice.