Abstract
EBUS is widely used as a staging investigation for lung cancer but there can be different levels of experience within a group of operators. There have not been any published studies comparing sensitivities and negative predictive values (NPVs) among operators from a single centre. We conducted a retrospective audit on all EBUS procedures in our centre on patients with lung cancer in 2014. We compared 167 EBUS results against patients' lung cancer staging. Overall departmental sensitivity was 90.7% and NPV was 84.1%. The 8 operators' individual sensitivities ranged from 66.7 to 100% and NPVs from 50 to 100%. Numbers of procedures per operator ranged from 8 to 38. We found our overall sensitivity and NPV comparable to other studies. The ASTER trial (Annema JT et al. JAMA 2010; 304(20):2245-52) showed sensitivity of 85% and NPV of 93%, and a database analysis (Evison, M. et al. European Respiratory Journal 2014, 44(Suppl 58), p.P2757) showed sensitivity of 84.5% and NPV of 75.6%. The variation in results between our 8 operators was within control limits, representing common cause variation. We showed that we can provide an EBUS service with good overall sensitivity and NPV for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer despite different experience levels, and we demonstrated common cause variation in the sensitivities and NPVs of our eight operators.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016
