Computed tomography-guided localization for lung nodules: methylene-blue versus coil localization.

Area of Science:

• Thoracic Surgery
• Medical Imaging
• Pulmonology

Background:

• Lung nodules (LNs) require precise localization for effective surgical resection.
• Preoperative localization techniques aim to improve the success rates of minimally invasive procedures like video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the clinical efficacy of CT-guided methylene-blue (MB) versus coil localization for lung nodules (LNs).
• To evaluate the technical success rates of localization and subsequent VATS-guided wedge resection for both methods.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study of 89 patients with LNs undergoing CT-guided MB or coil localization followed by VATS wedge resection.
• Comparison of technical success rates for localization and resection between the MB and coil groups.

Main Results:

• Both MB and coil localization demonstrated high success rates: 97.9% for MB and 96.9% for coil localization and wedge resection.
• No significant differences in technical success were observed between the two groups (p=1.000).
• The coil group had a significantly longer interval between localization and VATS (14.4 hours) compared to the MB group (1.6 hours) (p=0.001).

Conclusions:

• CT-guided MB and coil localization are safe and effective for achieving high success rates in VATS-guided wedge resection of LNs.
• Coil localization offers greater flexibility due to a potentially longer time interval before VATS compared to MB localization.