Efficacy of a dehydrated hydrogel plug to reduce complications associated with computed tomography-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine whether a hydrogel plug, when placed in the needle tract after a computed tomography-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle lung biopsy, reduces the rate of complications. Materials and Methods: This retrospective analysis included biopsies of lung lesions from 200 consecutive patients. The first 100 consecutive biopsies made up the control group, in which no plug intervention was used. The next 100 consecutive biopsies made up the treatment group, in which a hydrogel plug was deployed through a 19-G coaxial needle system after 20-G core samples were obtained. Results: The overall mean age was 64.92 years. No statistically significant differences in patient characteristics and procedure parameters were found between the control and treatment groups except for age (mean age, 62.92 vs. 66.92 y, P=0.022) and procedure duration (mean minutes, 7.81 vs. 6.47 min, P=0.021). The rate of pneumothorax in the control versus treatment group was 31% vs. 29% (P=0.498) and the rate of hemoptysis was 6% vs. 3% (P=0.354). The rate of chest tube insertion after pneumothorax was significantly higher in the control group than in the treatment group (10% vs. 2%, P=0.032) and the average length of hospital stay was longer in the control group (0.44 vs. 0.07 d, P=0.041). The difference was still statistically significant for the chest tube insertion rate (P=0.030) and close to statistically significant for the length of hospital stay (P=0.063), after adjusting for the confounding effect of age and procedure duration. Conclusion: These data show that the deployment of a hydrogel plug after a computed tomography-guided lung biopsy significantly reduced the rate of chest tube insertion along with a reduced length of hospital stay.