The Use and Effectiveness of Balloon for Endobronchial Ultrasonography

Although balloons appear to improve ultrasound image quality, it's use can be technically difficult for segmental airways because of anatomical limitations to convex probe imaging. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether this leads to a better diagnostic yield. To our knowledge, there are currently no studies showing that the use of balloon improves diagnostic yield with EBUS. We hypothesize that the use of balloon may increase the diagnostic yield by improving ultrasound image quality and reduce the duration of the procedure.The aim of this study is to analyse whether the use of balloon during linear EBUS 1) improves diagnostic yield, 2) reduces the duration of the procedure, and 3) improves ultrasound image quality with increased operator satisfaction in terms of ease of procedure.