CT-Guided vs. Navigational Bronchoscopic Biopsies for Solitary Pulmonary Nodules: A Single-Institution Retrospective Comparison

Since the advent of lung cancer screening, the incidence of finding lung nodules has increased. Biopsy of these nodules can be performed by various techniques. In this study we have compared diagnostic accuracy and safety profile of two commonly used techniques; Electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy (ENB) and CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration (TTNA). In this retrospective study, we show that CT-guided TTNA has a higher diagnostic accuracy but also higher rate of complications as compared to ENB.Objective: Lung cancer is the second most common cause of death by cancer. Multiple modalities can be used to obtain a tissue sample from a pulmonary nodule. We aimed to compare the yield and adverse events related to transthoracic needle aspiration (TTNA) and Electromagnetic Navigation Biopsy (ENB) at our institution. Methods: This was a single-center retrospective study in which all patients referred for evaluation of a pulmonary lesion over 5 years (1 January 2013 to 31 December 2018) were identified. Our primary outcome was to compare the accuracy of TTNA to that of ENB in establishing the diagnosis of pulmonary lesions. Secondary outcomes included the evaluation of the adverse events and the sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive value of each modality. Results: A total of 1006 patients were analyzed. The mean age of patients in the TTNA and the ENB group was 67.2 +/- 11.2 years and 68.3 +/- 9.2 years respectively. Local anesthesia was predominantly used for TTNA and moderate sedation was more commonly used in the ENB group. We found ENB to have an accuracy of 57.1%, with a sensitivity of 40.0%, a specificity of 100.0%, a positive predictive value of 100.0%, and a negative predictive value of 40.0%. As for the TTNA, the accuracy was 75.9%, with a sensitivity of 77.5%, a specificity of 61.5%, a positive predictive value of 95.0%, and a negative predictive value of 22.5%. The rate of clinically significant complications was higher in the TTNA group (8.2%) as compared to the ENB group (4.7%) with a p-value < 0.001. Conclusion: TTNA was superior to ENB-guided biopsy for the diagnostic evaluation of lung nodules. However, the complication rate was much higher in the TTNA group as compared to the ENB group.