CT-guided biopsy protocols
needle-paths
PATHOLOGY, COMPLICATIONS
All procedures were performed under the guidance of a 16-row CT (Philips™, Cleveland, OH, USA) operated through a CT-guided interventional radiology expert (10+ years). Only the spiral CT was used for guiding the biopsy procedures, while the CT fluoroscopy was not used.The patient’s position was decided according to the sites of PNs. The needle-paths were chosen depending upon preoperative CT outcomes. The co-axial technique was employed during the procedure. First, a 17G outer needle (DuoSmart™, Modena, Italy) was used to pierce the lung-parenchyma, followed by a second CT scan to establish a needle-tip to displace it accordingly. Once the outer needle-tip touched the PN, an 18G inner semi-automatic core-needle (Wego™, Weihai, China) was inserted via the outer needle to obtain the samples from the PNs. A total of 3–4 samples were obtained from each PN and consequently submerged into 10% formaldehyde until pathology assessment was done.After biopsy, another CT intervention was conducted to assess the procedure-associated complications.