Retrospective comparison of conscious sedation and general anesthesia in endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA)

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Objectives: : The main objective of this study was to evaluate the procedure characteristics and complication rates of ultrasound-guided endobronchial transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) performed under conscious sedation (CS) versus general anesthesia (GA).The airway devices used for GA were being evaluated as a secondary aim.Methods: Patients who had EBUS-TBNA at our tertiary hospital's between January 2017 and December 2021 were retrospectively studied.The study included all participants who were 18 years or older and had no missing medical data.The patients were divided into two groups: Those who had CS and those who had GA.Age, gender, ASA physical status, EBUS-TBNA mean number of lymph node (LN) per patient, and complications during the procedure were compared between groups.Results: There were 454 patients (58.7%) in the CS group and 319 patients (41.3%) in the GA group in our sample of 773 patients.Classical laryngeal mask airway (LMA) (92.1%) was the most common in the GA group, whereas number 4 LMA (71.7%) was the most preferred in LMA.In EBUS-TBNA, the average number of aspirated LN procedures per patient was greater in the GA group than in the CS group (1.63 vs.1.32).Complications were more common in the CS group than in the GA group (9.7% vs. 4.4%). Conclusion:The GA approach in EBUS-TBNA was shown to be more successful and safer than the CS approach in terms of number of LNs per patient and complication rates.We also determined that the classic LMA is an appropriate airway device in EBUS-TBNA.