Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul;8(4):291-295.
doi: 10.1111/1759-7714.12439. Epub 2017 Apr 24.

Endobronchial and transbronchial biopsy experience: A United Kingdom survey

Janet Fallon  1 , Andrew R L Medford  2
Affiliations

Endobronchial and transbronchial biopsy experience: A United Kingdom survey

Janet Fallon et al. Thorac Cancer. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Trainees are performing fewer bronchoscopies as a result of the increased use of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration. Workforce planning and changes in trainee working patterns may also have compounded this situation. We investigated current trends in endobronchial biopsy (EBB) and transbronchial biopsy (TBB) training and competency in respiratory trainees and consultants across the United Kingdom.

Methods: We performed a national survey and received 131 online responses from 58 consultants and 73 registrars across 13 United Kingdom deaneries.

Results: A significant proportion (31%) of consultants, more than half of which were new consultants, had performed <500 bronchoscopies. Bronchoscopic biopsy experience varies widely across trainees and consultants (9.1% of senior trainees and 14.3% of new consultants had performed <100 bronchoscopies). Most trainees and some new consultants reported performing relatively low numbers of EBB (13% <20 and 52% <50 procedures) and TBB (75% of trainees, 36% of new consultants, 12% of established consultants <10 procedures). Significant numbers of trainees do not feel competent in EBB (24%) and TBB (89% of junior trainees, 64% of senior trainees) and some consultants (24% of new and established consultants) wish for support with TBB.

Conclusions: These results have implications for future specialist training, curriculum planning, and service configuration. Training and performance of EBB and TBB may become concentrated in centers with an adequate volume of these procedures. Higher volumes of EBB and TBB may well be more likely to occur paradoxically in centers without endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration; however, this hypothesis requires further study.

Keywords: Bronchoscopy; endobronchial biopsy; survey; training; transbronchial biopsy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of trainees performing 0 (blue), 1–5 (red), 6–10 (green), 11–20 (purple), 21–50 (light green), and > 50 (orange) (a) endobronchial biopsy (EBB) or (b) transbronchial biopsy (TBB) procedures.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Self‐reported percentage of registrars (blue and orange) and consultants (green and purple) confident in performing endobronchial biopsy (EBB) and transbronchial biopsy (TBB). DGH, district general hospital.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Du Rand IA, Blaikley J, Booton R et al. British Thoracic Society guideline for diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy in adults: Accredited by NICE. Thorax 2013; 68 (Suppl. 1): i1–44. - PubMed
    1. Du Rand IA, Lewis RA. BTS bronchoscopy training survey 2009. Thorax 2009; 64: (Suppl.)A159–66.
    1. Smyth CM, Stead RJ. Survey of flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy in the United Kingdom. Eur Respir J 2002; 19: 458–63. - PubMed
    1. Medford AR. Impact of the European working time directive on specialty training. Qual Saf Health Care 2008; 17: 79–80. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources