ABSTRACT
Mediastinoscopy was first described by Carlins in 1959; since then, few major changes have occurred from the technical aspect.
Mediastinoscopy is mainly used for lung cancer staging and for tissue diagnosis in patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Even with the great improvement in thoracic imaging, mediastinoscopy remains the gold standard. For preoperative mediastinal node involvement computerized tomography (CT) has a sensitivity of 87%, and a specifity of 82%.
