Reply to De Leyn and Lerut. Mediastinoscopy and repeat mediastinoscopy: still useful tools in experienced hands!

Repeat mediastinoscopy as a restaging procedure.

BACKGROUND Repeat cervical mediastinoscopy is a diagnostic surgical procedure for preoperative nodal staging in patients with insufficient first mediastinoscopy, with recurrent or second primary lung neoplasms, and following induction chemotherapy or chemo-/radiotherapy for locally advanced lung cancer. The aim of this study was to critically analyse indications, technical characteristics, intr...

Tuberculosis and mediastinoscopy.

Biopsy of lymph nodes at mediastinoscopy has been the method of diagnosis of tuberculosis in 14 patients; Mycobacterium tuberculosis was cultured from the nodes in nine cases, and in five there was histological evidence of the disease but cultural confirmation was lacking. All patients had radiographic abnormality of the superior mediastinum, and a frequent finding at mediastinoscopy was medias...

Repeat mediastinoscopy in the staging of lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE Despite technical difficulties due to mediastinal fibrosis, repeat mediastinoscopy can be a valuable tool in the restaging of lung cancer. It provides essential pathological information on mediastinal invasion when selecting patients for surgical resection after induction chemotherapy in stage IIIa disease. The aim of our study was to evaluate the feasibility, sensitivity and accuracy...

Experience with Mediastinoscopy.

Extended cervical mediastinoscopy revisited.

OBJECTIVES To describe the diagnostic value of selective extended cervical mediastinoscopy (ECM) in combination with video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy (VAMLA) in mediastinal staging of potentially resectable left-sided lung carcinoma. METHODS Institutional report on 110 ECM procedures indicated for enlarged lymph nodes within the aorto-pulmonary (AP) zone on computed tomography....