Role of Mediastinoscopy in Determining the Cause of Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy in Patients Referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Babol

One of the most important steps in the treatment of patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathy is the definitive diagnosis using tissue sampling of the intra-mediastinal lesion. Mediastinoscopy is one of the methods used for this purpose. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the role of mediastinoscopy in determining the cause of mediastinal lymphadenopathy in patients referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Babol, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 36 patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathy who were admitted to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Babol (April 2009-March 2020) and underwent mediastinoscopy. Recorded medical information of all patients without known lung cancer under mediastinoscopy was reviewed. Mediastinoscopy was performed by a specialist doctor for all patients and the biopsy sample was sent to Shahid Beheshti Hospital Pathology for final diagnosis. Descriptive data were analyzed using SPSS25 software at a significance level of 0.05.

The mean age of the patients was 47.97±11.04 years (range: 28-76 years). The majority of patients were women (n=27; 75.00%). According to the pathology results, the final diagnosis for 33 people (91.67%) was benign, and 3 people (8.33%) were diagnosed with malignant. The most common pathology result was sarcoidosis with 23 cases (63.90%), active infection in 4 cases (11.11%), and squamous cell carcinoma in 3 cases (8.33%). Other benign results were reported with the frequency of one case (78.2%). Pathology findings had no significant relationship with the age and gender of patients (P<0.05).

Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that mediastinoscopy can help determine the causes of mediastinal lymphadenopathy and it is still a reliable method for examining mediastinal lesions.