Hierarchical clock-scale hand-drawn mapping as a simple method for bronchoscopic navigation in peripheral pulmonary...

Area of Science:

• Pulmonology
• Medical Imaging
• Interventional Pulmonology

Background:

• A need exists for cost-effective and practical bronchoscopic navigation techniques for peripheral pulmonary nodule biopsy.
• Current methods may be limited by cost and complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of hierarchical clock-scale hand-drawn mapping for guiding bronchoscopic navigation to peripheral pulmonary nodules.
• To compare this novel approach with conventional virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN).

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study comparing hand-drawn bronchoscopic navigation (HBN) with virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) for peripheral pulmonary nodule biopsy.
• Both groups utilized radial probe endobronchial ultrasound (RP-EBUS).
• Key metrics included planning time, procedure duration, operating cost, and diagnostic yield.

Main Results:

• The HBN group demonstrated significantly shorter pathway planning and total operation times compared to the VBN group.
• Operating costs were markedly lower in the HBN group (758.31 USD) versus the VBN group (1327.70 USD).
• Diagnostic yields were comparable between HBN (75.00%) and VBN (61.90%), regardless of lesion size.

Conclusions:

• Hierarchical clock-scale hand-drawn mapping is a feasible and economical method for peripheral pulmonary nodule biopsy.
• HBN offers a comparable diagnostic yield to VBN, presenting a viable alternative for clinical practice.