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Case Reports
. 2021 Aug 23;21(1):274.
doi: 10.1186/s12890-021-01640-1.

Lung "holes" after cryobiopsy: a case report

Roberto Piro  1 , Sofia Taddei  2 , Matteo Fontana  2 , Chiara Scelfo  2 , Eleonora Casalini  2 , Nicola Facciolongo  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Lung "holes" after cryobiopsy: a case report

Roberto Piro et al. BMC Pulm Med. .

Abstract

Background: Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy is a safe technique increasingly used in the study of lung diseases. Until now, only a case of pneumatocele was described but this interesting condition is probably underestimated because CT scan is routinely not performed after transbronchial lung cryobiopsies.

Case presentation: We report a case of a woman presenting two pneumatoceles after lung cryobiopsies performed for the study of an interstitial lung disease. The finding was obtained with a CT scan performed because of the appearance of hemoptysis, four days after the biopsies.

Conclusions: Small cavitations could develop after cryobiopsies in the absence of an active infection. Studies that prospectively perform CT scan of the chest in patients who have undergone these samplings could be useful to know the incidence of iatrogenic lesions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
CT scan five days after cryobiopsies. a Lateral pneumatocele (arrows) in coronal plane. b Lateral pneumatocele in sagittal plane. c Lateral pneumatocele (arrows) in axial plane. d Medial pneumatocele in axial plane
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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