An evaluation of open lung biopsy

Open lung biopsy proved to be an accurate method of establishing a histological diagnosis in symptomatic patients with diffuse pulmonary disease demonstrated by chest X ray. The majority of patients responded to therapy based on the histological diagnosis. The procedure was associated with an appreciable operative mortality (7.3%) secondary to recurrent pneumothorax in those patients with severe diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis or pneumonitis indicating that these patients should be followed very carefully for at least several weeks following the operative procedure and that corticosteroids should be withheld for several weeks until the biopsy site has healed.