Complications in transbronchial lung biopsy.

Transbronchial lung biopsy was performed in 68 patients with various lung diseases. As an inital diagnostic procedure in diffuse and localized lung diseases, trasbronchial lung biopsy offers an attractive alternative to open lung biopsy. Recently imporvement in the development of medical technology has greatly facilitated this technique, but it must be kept in mind that a transbronchial lung biopsy is not without complication and sometimes potentially serious complications may occur. This study documents the complications of transbronchial lung biopsy with 8 cases of pneumothorax (11.8%), one case of mediastinal emphysema (1.5%), 3 cases of hemorrhage (4.4%), 2 cases of cardiac arrythmia (2.9%), but none of them was fatal and they responded well with treatment.