This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

The main objectives are: a) to assess the effectiveness of real time EBUS-TBNA in different pathologies in comparison to other available techniques for lymph node staging and b) to assess the safety of real time EBUS-TBNA in different pathologies.

1) EBUS-TBNA seems to be a safe and highly sensitive and specific technique for the examination and staging of mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes in patients with known or suspected lung malignancy; 2) this technique could decrease the overall number of procedures needed for staging/diagnosing lymph nodes and replace invasive techniques in an important number of patients but negative results always must be confirmed; 3) with the available information it is not possible to establish the exact place of EBUS-TBNA in the algorithm for suspected lung cancer or mediastinal staging or assess its usefulness for estimating prognosis or guide the choice of treatment; 4) the evidence is not sufficient in quantity or quality to determine its use in other pathologies such as sarcoidosis or lymphoma.

http://www.inahta.org/Publications/Briefs-Checklist-Impact/2009/4241/