A New Instrument for Intraoperative Visualization of Safe Surgical Margins for Small Lung Nodules

Intraoperative assessment of surgical margins when lung nodules are to be removed can be a challenging undertaking. With the increasing use of sublobar resections, the need to define, either thoracoscopically or in open surgery, the safe margins for the intended wedge or segmentectomy are presumed based on the individual surgeon's expertise and experience. A new instrument is introduced to measure safe margins according to the current evidence from the literature by tattooing the lung around the nodule at a distance based on the maximum diameter of the nodule assessed at computed tomography. Two size instruments are presented, for up to 1 cm and 1.5 cm nodules and the technique of their utilization is explained.