A survey of outcome of CT guided lung biopsies in a tertiary centre

Background: CT guided biopsy is a widely used method of taking biopsy from peripheral lung lesions and is usually safe. In addition to keeping an acceptable hit rate with low complication, it is important that a satisfactory amount of tissue material is obtained to meet the need of increased number of immunostaining (EGFR, ALK). Objective: Evaluation of practice of CT guided biopsy in our hospital in the last 12 months. Method: We analysed the outcome of all CT guided lung biopsies between Dec911 and Dec912. Data were derived from lung cancer database and PACS(radiology system). Results: Total of 105 patients (Age 70+/-10; male–53) underwent the procedure. Mean FEV1 was 80% predicted, 4/105(3%) had FEV1 Ten(8.5%) had pneumothorax with a mean size of 1 cm but none needed chest drain. Twenty five(15%) had CT detected haemorrhage only. Four patients with INR>1.5 had no complication. There was no complication in patients with very low FEV1( Conclusion: In this tertiary centre, CT guided biopsies have been done with lower than average complication rates. The tissue obtained were mostly adequate despite the demand for increasing amount of tissue for immunocytochemistry. Even in high risk patients, no complication was seen in this cohort in our institution.