title: Surgical lung biopsies in 418 patients with suspected interstitial lung disease in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present study was aimed to evaluate the role and safety of surgical lung biopsies (SLB) in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis of 418 patients with ILD undergoing SLB from Chinese literature and the data of our hospital during the past ten years was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 418 cases underwent SLB, including open lung biopsy (OLB) in 229 cases and video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy (VATLB) in 189 cases. SLB yielded a specific diagnosis for 88.0% cases, and unclassifiable idiopathic interstitial pneumonia diagnosis was seen in 9.1% cases. The total postoperative complication rate was 12.0% and mortality rate was 1.9%. The diagnostic yield, post-operative complication rate, and mortality rate between VATLB and OLB had no significant difference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SLB is a very useful and relatively safe procedure for diagnosis of ILD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, China. dpzhang207@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Deping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult