The use of surgery in a real-world clinic to diagnose and treat pulmonary cryptococcosis in immunocompetent patients

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the role played by surgery in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) in immunocompetent subjects. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 53 immunocompetent patients who were pathologically diagnosed with PC between January 2000 and December 2016 in a tertiary referral center. We compared the radiological presentations of, and diagnostic modalities used to evaluate, patients diagnosed both surgically and non-surgically. We also compared the treatment outcomes of patients who underwent surgical resection alone and those who received additional antifungals following surgical resection. RESULTS: Of the 53 patients, 30 (57%) were diagnosed via non-surgical modalities including percutaneous needle biopsy (PCNB) (n=29) and transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) (n=1); and 23 (43%) were diagnosed by surgical modalities including video-assisted thoracoscopic wedge resection (n=22) and lobectomy (n=1). An initial clinical suspicion of a lung malignancy was associated with the use of surgical diagnostic approaches (P