It deals specifically with minimally invasive endoscopic and percutaneous procedures for diagnosis and treatment of neoplastic as well as non-neoplastic diseases of the airways, lungs, and pleura.
Before the advent of optical fibers and advances in anesthesiology, interventional pulmonary procedures were mostly limited to foreign body retrieval via rigid bronchoscopy.
In 1978, Kopen Wang and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Hospital described the use of transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) through a rigid bronchoscope to diagnose a paratracheal mediastinal mass.
[5] Following the advent of endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), which first became available in the early 21st century, EBUS-TBNA swiftly replaced mediastinoscopy as the first-line in mediastinal staging for lung cancer.
[12] To address the issue of inconsistent IP training across fellowship programs, representative members from five professional organizations (AABIP, AIPPD, ACCP, ATS, and APCCMPD) jointly published a list of minimum standards required by July 2019 in order for IP fellowship programs to receive formal accreditation from the AABIP and AIPPD.