Mediastinoscopy: A Safe and Useful Procedure in the Investigation of Patients with Intrathoracic Diseases

Mediastinoscopy was performed on 280 patients. The technique is described. A tissue diagnosis was made at mediastinoscopy in 82 cases (29·2%) and, of these, 34 were primary lung carcinomas, one was a secondary deposit from a Grawiiz tumour, 44 were sarcoid tumours and three lymphomas. Of 112 patients with carcinoma for whom the diagnosis was proved at mediastinoscopy, or for whom a negative mediastinoscopy result could be verified at thoracotomy, mediastinoscopy proved to be useful for 94 (83·9%). Of 48 patients with suspected sarcoid, mediastinoscopy gave a positive result for 44 (91·6%). There were only two complications in this series.