A simple way to indicate pulmonary nodules at thoracoscopic wedge resections

Small pulmonary subpleural nodules are sometimes difficult to localise at thoracotomy. With the advent of minimal invasive surgery, thoracoscopic resection avoiding anterolateral thoracotomy is an attractive procedure. Since this technique does not allow manual palpation, preoperative indication of lesions is mandatory. A simple and cost-effective system for preoperative CT-guided localisation of small subpleural nodules before thoracoscopic resection is described.

The system consists of a 0.2 mm steel wire 30-40 cm in length and a 0.9-mm biopsy needle. The tip of the wire is bent to a hook, and, guided by CT, it is placed in the vicinity of the lesion. The technique was tested in 8 cases.

The procedure was possible to perform in 7 patients. In all instances the wire remained in place when the lung was collapsed during the thoracoscopic procedure. The staple resected part of the lung also contained the lesion when examined extracorporeally.

This simple and inexpensive system was found to be useful for indication of pulmonary lesions at thoracoscopic wedge resections.