Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 202 patients (91 males, 111 females; mean age 49±12 years; range 18 to 78 years) who underwent surgical lung biopsy in our hospital between May 2008 and December 2014. We recorded patients’ demographic characteristics, surgery type, number and localization of biopsies, and final diagnoses established in light of histopathological findings. According to the final diagnoses, we divided patients into two groups as patients with an established specific diagnosis (group 1) and patients without an established specific diagnosis (group 2). We investigated the effect of surgical procedure on final diagnosis.

Results: Left lung was more frequently sampled (72%) and 75% of the procedures ended up with a single biopsy. Total number of biopsies was 255. Of all samples, 44% were taken from the middle lobe or lingula. Rate of patients with a histopathologically established and clinically and radiologically verified final diagnosis was 80% (group 1). Gender (p=0.161), number of samples (p=0.541), lung side (p=0.954), or lung segment (p=0.592) did not affect the rate of establishing a diagnosis. Of the patients, mortality was observed in 2%, major complications in 1.5%, and minor complications in 9.5%. No relationship was detected between localization or number of biopsies and development of complications (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Albeit with low probability, surgical lung biopsies are correlated with morbidity and mortality. Not all procedures result in a specific diagnosis. Localization, type or number of biopsies do not affect the diagnosis rate significantly.