Systemic Air Embolism Complicating Computed Tomography-guided Percutaneous Transthoracic Biopsy of Cavitary Lung Lesions: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: Cavitary lung lesions often pose a diagnostic challenge, and tissue sampling can be required to obtain a confident diagnosis. Many authors contend that a computed tomography-guided percutaneous transthoracic lung biopsy (PTLB) of a cavitary lung lesion places a patient at higher risk for systemic air embolism (SAE) compared with biopsy of a noncavitary lesion.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed the literature for studies of SAE complicating PTLB. We searched English-language articles indexed through PubMed, Embase, and Ovid Medline and included articles published up to March 31, 2020.

Results: We identified 10 case reports of SAE complicating PTLB, and 3 case-cohort studies comparing cavitary and noncavitary lesion biopsy. Among the case-cohort studies reviewed, 4 SAE occurred among 145 biopsies of cavitary lesions (2.7%), and 65 SAE occurred among 3050 biopsies of noncavitary lesions (2.1%). The pooled odds ratio of PTLB complicating SAE of cavitary lesions compared with noncavitary lesions was 1.29 (95% confidence interval: 0.47-3.60). No deaths following SAE after computed tomography-guided PTLB of cavitary lesions were reported in recent literature.

Conclusions: On the basis of available evidence, air embolism rates are similar for PTLB of cavitary and noncavitary lesions. Additional research and registry studies are necessary to better understand this topic.