Introduction:
Surgical lung biopsy (SLB) can be a useful tool in the diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (ILD). The aim of this study is to describe the diagnostic yield, complications and survival of SLB performed in our centre.
 
Material and methods:
Retrospective descriptive study of SLB performed from January 2014 to October 2022. We describe the clinical characteristics,diagnostic results and survival after SLB. Presented as mean and standard deviation.
 
Results:
SLB was performed on 51 patients.The general characteristics, comorbidities of the patients, initial pre-surgical clinical suspicion and final histological diagnosis are shown in figure 1.Post-surgical complications in 8 (15%): pneumonia 1 (2%),persistent air leak 2 (4%), mild wound infection 2 (4%), chronic pain 3 (6%), cardiovascular complication 1 (2%). There were no exacerbations of ILD in the following 3 months, no complicated pleural effusion and no respiratory failure. SLB conditioned some change in management in 36 cases (71%):corticosteroids were added in 10 (20%) and antifibrotics in 26 (51%). Overall survival at 1, 6 and 12 months after SLB was 98%,94% and 90% respectively.
 
Conclusions:
In our series of patients with ILD, SLB is a technique that provides diagnostic and therapeutic optimization in up to 71% of cases. Complications of surgery are minimal, mild, with a very low risk of mortality associated with the technique and no apparent risk of exacerbations.