Bronchoscopic transesophageal ultrasound-guided needle aspiration: an alternative to the conventional transesophageal ultrasound-guided needle aspiration technique.

摘要

The real-time ultrasound-guided needle aspiration technique through the airway (endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration [EBUS-TBNA]) or esophagus (endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration [EUS-FNA]) has been reported to be an accurate and minimally invasive technique for evaluation of hilar/medias-tinal lesions. Both techniques have been reported to be complementary because some accessible regions differ from each other. However, the combination of these procedures, which require separate equipment or examiners, is much more complex than either procedure by itself. The mechanism of EBUS bronchoscopes is similar to that of EUS endoscopes, and therefore bronchoscopic transeso-phageal ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration might be feasible.4 We herein describe a patient with a mediastinal lymph node metastasis who did not undergo EBUS-TBNA but whose condition was successfully diagnosed by means of EUS-FNA with an EBUS bronchoscope.