Factors Associated With Diagnostic Accuracy of Robotic Bronchoscopy With 12-Month Follow-up

Robotic bronchoscopy (RB) aims to increase the diagnostic yield of guided bronchoscopy by providing improved navigation, farther reach, and stability during lesion sampling.

We reviewed data on consecutive cases in which RB was used to diagnose lung lesions from June 15, 2018, to December 15, 2019, at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The median lesion size was 20.5 mm. All patients had at least 12 months of follow-up. The overall diagnostic accuracy was 77% (95 of 124). The diagnostic accuracy was 85%, 84%, and 38% for concentric, eccentric, and absent radial endobronchial ultrasound (r-EBUS) views, respectively (P < .001). A positive r-EBUS view and lesions size of 20 to 30 mm had higher odds of achieving a diagnosis on multivariate analysis. The 12-month diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value for malignancy were 77%, 69%, 100%, 100%, and 58%, respectively. Pneumothorax was noted in 1.6% (n = 2) patients with bleeding reported in 3.2% (n = 4). No postprocedure respiratory failure was noted.

The overall diagnostic accuracy using RB for pulmonary lesion sampling in our cohort with 12-month follow-up compared favorably with established guided bronchoscopy technologies. Lesion size ≥20 mm and confirmation by r-EBUS predicted higher accuracy independent of concentric or eccentric r-EBUS patterns.