ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Chirurgia 2003 April;16(2):51-4

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Mediastinoscopy. A routine surgical procedure in the diagnosis of thoracic disease

Minniti A., Jougon J., Velly J. F.

Aim. Mediastinoscopy is a common surgical procedure used in diagnosis of thoracic diseases, since it was introduced by Carlens in 1959. The aim of this study is to carry out a retrospective evaluation of a routine surgical technique; as soon as possible a comparison will be made with the results obtained by the new invasive diagnostic techniques such as VATS and video-mediastinoscopy, and non-invasive techniques such as PET scan.
Methods. A retrospective study has been carried out on mediastinoscopies performed in our division from May 1996 to May 1999. A total of 493 mediastinoscopies were consecutively performed; extended cervical mediastinoscopies were not carried out, as described by Beaulieu and Ginsberg.
Results. Specificity and sensitivity were 100% and 95.5%, respectively. Only 4 complications were reported (0.8%).
Conclusions. The conclusion is drawn that mediastinoscopy is a safe and effective procedure in the diagnosis of thoracic diseases.