Preoperative computed tomography-guided hook-wire positioning of pulmonary nodules

This study aimed to analyze the clinical application value of computed tomography (CT)-guided hook-wire positioning before thoracoscopic surgery. Eighty-four patients who had received a thoracoscopic wedge resection of pulmonary nodules between January and December 2013 were selected. Group A consisted of 38 cases where the hook-wire positioning technique was not used, and the positioning approaches were intraoperative observation and palpation. Group B consisted of 46 cases where the hook-wire positioning technique was used. The diameter of each nodule was less than 2 cm, and all patients underwent the operation within 2 h of invasive positioning. The evaluation indexes included positioning success rate, positioning-related complications, and rate of conversion to thoracotomy. In Group A, nine patients (23.68%) underwent conversion to thoracotomy; in Group B, three patients (6.52%) did. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The average operation duration was 118 ± 21 min in Group A and 53 ± 18 min in Group B. The difference between both groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The average length of hospital stay of patients who underwent conversion to thoracotomy was 8.7 ± 2.2 days, and of patients who underwent thoracoscopic pulmonary wedge resection was 4.5 ± 1.6 days. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Therefore, CT-guided hook-wire positioning of pulmonary nodules before thoracoscopic surgery has clinical application value. It helps to accurately locate the pulmonary nodules, effectively lowers the rate of conversion to thoracotomy, and reduces the operation duration.