If you have a pulmonary condition, your doctor may want to evaluate your lung tissue for potential lung disease. To do this, the doctor will need to remove a piece of lung tissue and have it tested in a laboratory.
Your doctor may suggest cryobiopsy, which is a way to remove lung tissue without performing surgery. During cryobiopsy, the doctor inserts a flexible tube, called a cryoprobe, into your airway to reach your lungs.
The cryoprobe uses a freezing process to extract a piece of tissue that remains on the probe as the tube is removed from your airway. After removal the tissue sample thaws, and the doctor submits it for evaluation.
Benefits of cryobiopsy over surgical lung biopsy are that the doctor can extract a larger tissue sample, and the tissue remains intact and is not “crushed” when it is removed.