Introduction: Mediastinoscopy is an important tool for staging lung cancer and evaluating mediastinal pathology. The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the indications and safety of mediastinoscopy in a well defined cohort of patients.
Material and methods: All patients that underwent mediastinoscopy in Iceland between 1983-2007 were included. Clinical information was obtained from patient charts and pathology reports rewied. The study-period was divided into 5-year periods for comparison.
Results: Altogether 278 operations were performed but in 17 cases data was missing, leaving 261 patients for analysis (mean age 59 yrs, range 11-89, 159 males). A steady increase was seen in the number of operations, or from 16 to 85 during the first and last periods, respectively (p<0.01). Staging of lung cancer (61,3%), evaluation of mediastinal tumors (24,5%), and suspected sarcoidosis (8,8%) were the most common indications. Mean operating time was 30 minutes (range 10-320) and median hospital stay 1 day (range 0,5-26). The most common histological diagnosis were nonspecific changes (33,6%), lung cancer (23,8%) and sarcoidosis (12,7%). Seven patients (2.7%) had complications; including 4 (1.5%) with hoarsness due to left recurrent nerve injury, one (0,3%) with pneumothorax and two with >500 ml hemorrhage (1.1%). There were two operative deaths (<30 days), one due to major intraoperative bleeding.
Conclusions: The number of mediastinoscopies is increasing in Iceland, especially as a part of lung cancer staging. Mediastinoscopy is a safe procedure with low mortality and morbidity, where a specific diagnosis is obtained in most cases.