Mini-invasive diagnosis and synchronous treatment of solitary pulmonary nodule

Abstract

Aim: to develop a simplified method to make a rapid, cost-effective, and precise diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules, and to perform synchronous treatment of solitary pulmonary nodules. Methods: the solitary pulmonary nodule was located by digital palpation, and tissue was acquired with a core biopsy gun. In the presence of primary lung cancer, the intervention proceeded to lobectomy. In the case of a benign assessment, the whole nodule was wedged out and sent for a frozen-section double check: if the benign assessment was confirmed, the patient was excluded from further surgery; if the assessment was revised to malignant, the intervention proceeded to lobectomy as well as lymphadenectomy. Results: 76 patients were enrolled. The mean nodule diameter was 1.8 ± 0.6 cm, the mean distance between the visceral pleural and the nodule was 2.4 ± 1.4 cm, and the mean number of punctures was 2.5. The mean time for the phase of intraoperative core biopsy was 10 ± 2 min, and the related blood loss was approximately 5 mL. Fifty-six malignant nodules and 20 benign nodules were confirmed. Both the sensitivity and accuracy were 100%. Conclusion: our results indicate that the simplified mini-invasive diagnosis and treatment is an accurate, safe, rapid, and cost-saving method, which may translate into fundamentally reducing the medical cost and time for lung cancer patients.