Virtual bronchoscopic navigation without fluoroscopy guidance for peripheral pulmonary lesions in inexperienced pulmonologist

Objective:Fluoroscopy guidance is generally required for endobronchial ultrasonography with guide sheath(EBUS-GS)in peripheral pulmonary lesions(PPLs).Virtual bronchoscopic navigation(VBN)can guide the bronchoscope by creating virtual images of the bronchial route to the lesion.The diagnostic yield and safety profiles of VBN without fluoroscopy for PPLs have not been evaluated in inexperienced pulmonologist performing EBUS-GS.Methods:Between January 2016 and June 2017,consecutive patients with PPLs referred for EBUS-GS at a single cancer center were enrolled.The diagnostic yield as well as safety profiles was retrospectively analyzed,and our preliminary experience was shared.Results:A total of 109 patients with 109 lesions were included,99(90.8%)lesions were visible on EBUS imaging.According to the procedure time needed to locate the lesion on EBUS,24.8%(27/109)were deemed technically difficult procedures;however,no significant relationships were identified between candidate parameters and technically difficult procedures.The overall diagnosis yield was 74.3%(81/109),and the diagnostic yield of malignancy was 83.7%(77/92).Lesions larger than 20 mm[odds ratio(OR),2.758;95%confidence interval(95%CI),1.077-7.062;P=0.034]and probe of within type(OR,3.174;95%CI,1.151-8.757,P=0.026)were independent factors leading to a better diagnostic yield in multivariate analysis.About 30 practice procedures were needed to achieve a stable diagnostic yield,and the proportion of technically difficult procedures decreased and stabilized after 70 practice procedures.Regarding complications,one patient(0.9%)had intraoperative hemorrhage(100 mL)which was managed under endoscopy.Conclusions:VBN without fluoroscopy guidance is still useful and safe for PPLs diagnosis,especially for malignant diseases when performed by pulmonologist without previous experience of EBUS-GS.VBN may simplify the process of lesion positioning and further multi-center randomized studies are warranted.

Robotic-assisted bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary lesions

More peripheral pulmonary lesions(PPLs)are detected by low-dose helical computed tomography(CT)either in-cidentally or via dedicated lung cancer screening programs.Thus,using methods for safe and accurate diagnosis of these lesions has become increasingly important.Transthoracic needle aspiration(TTNA)and transbronchial lung biopsy(TBLB)are routinely performed during the diagnostic workup for PPLs.However,TTNA often car-ries the risk of pneumothorax,uncontrollable airway hemorrhage,and does not allow mediastinal staging in one procedure.In contrast,traditional TBLB often has a poorer diagnostic yield despite fewer complications.With the ongoing development of technology applied to bronchoscopy,guided bronchoscopy has become widely used and the diagnostic yield of TBLB has improved.Additionally,guided bronchoscopy continues to demonstrate a better safety profile than TTNA.In recent years,robotic-assisted bronchoscopy(RAB)has been introduced and imple-mented in the diagnosis of PPLs.At present,RAB has two platforms that are commercially available:Monarch TM and Ion TM;several other platforms are under development.Both systems differ in characteristics,advantages,and limitations and offer features not seen in previous guided bronchoscopy.Several studies,including cadaveric model studies and clinical trials,have been conducted to examine the feasibility and performance of RAB using these two systems;large multicenter studies are underway.In this review,published experimental results,focus-ing on diagnostic yield and complications of RAB,are analyzed and the potential clinical application of RAB is discussed,which will enable the operators to have a clear overview of RAB.

DIFFERENTIAL ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSES OF PULMONARY BENIGN AND MALIGNANT SPACE-OCCUPIED LESIONS OF THE PERIPHERAL TYPE

87 patients with pulmonary space-occupied lesions of the peripheral type which were either adhesive of close to pleura were examined using ultuasonography.Of them,64 cases of lung cancers and 23 of bening lesions were then confirmed by