Imaging-guided Chest Biopsies with Thick Needle: Complications and Risk Factors Inherent to the Patient

Abstract

Objective Establish the incidence of complications with the use of thick needle (Trucut 18) for pulmonary puncture and perform an exploratory analysis of the inherent variables to the patient that may be related to complication development. Materials and Methods Retrospective study of a case series of patients undergoing transthoracic percutaneous puncture (PPT) with thick needle, guided by computed tomography (CT) for the study of pulmonary lesions; a univariate and multivariate analysis was performed. Results 26 punctures were performed, the incidence rate of complications was 38.46% in 1 year: patients presented: mild pneumothorax (n = 7), moderate pneumothorax (n = 3) and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (n = 1). The univariate statistical analysis showed a statistically significant difference in the age of the patients who presented complications v/s patients who did not present complications (61.18 +/- 3.6 versus 75.1 +/- 2.46 years, p = 0.0107). Conclusion PPT-CT is a procedure with a considerable rate of non-severe complications; in our case series, age was the variable that was most strongly associated with the probable development of complications.