Percutaneous intrathoracic mass biopsy: single centre performance and complications

Abstract

Author(s): Khaleel I Mohson*

Background: Lung cancer and pulmonary metastasis are common problems in daily practice, obtaining tissue sample to reach a final diagnosis is previously done by surgical operation under general anaesthesia, and nowadays with an adventure of imaging-guided tissue biopsy specifically tru-cut biopsy the number of surgical procedures was dramatically decreasing.

Aims: The study aimed to evaluate the role of Computed Tomography (CT) guided intrathoracic biopsy in achieving adequate tissue sampling and to assess the complications of the procedure.

Methods: A prospective study included 30 patients who complained of variable symptoms related to the respiratory system and were referred to Interventional Radiology (IR) clinic from the thoracic surgery after performing contrastenhanced chest CT that revealed intrathoracic-lung or pleural related-lesion(s), this study was performed in Ghazi alharriri subspeciality hospital during the period from September 2020 to November 2021.

Results: Thirty patients were included in the study, 19 are males and 11 are females, the mean age is 60 years, the majority of patients were in their 6th or 7th decades, 77% had a solitary pulmonary lesion, technical success is seen in 97%, the majority of biopsied lesions were >3 centimetres in diameter,80% were less than 5 centimetres in-depth, one passing attempt was achieved in 67% of patients, pneumothorax is seen in 26% of the cases, pulmonary hematoma seen in 13% while haemoptysis seen in one case, significant correlation seen between a number of passes and pneumothorax and/or hematoma formation, haemoptysis correlation is also statistically significant when correlated with the depth of lesion.

Conclusion: CT guided intrathoracic lesion biopsy is very efficient, costeffective, and less invasive technique when compared with thoracic surgery, as well as it has low complications and even when the complications occur all are not significant, it dramatically decreases the number of surgical procedures attempted to reach the final tissue diagnosis.

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