Transbronchial needle aspiration of a mediastinal mass: therapeutic implications.

Neoplasms, cysts, inflammatory processes, and aneurysms may present as a mediastinal mass. New diagnostic techniques have recently become available for use in the investigation of a mediastinal mass, and we present a case illustrating the use of a transbronchial needle through a flexible bronchoscope to drain an accumulation of mediastinal fluid. So far as we are aware this is the first such report published in English.