Purpose: Pneumothorax is the most common complication following a pulmonary percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and thoracic drainages are the most frequent causes of an extended hospital stay. Our main objective was to show that the use of gelatin torpedoes may significantly decrease the number of chest tube placement.
Materials and methods: Seventy-three patients were prospectively included in this study and then randomised into two groups: 34 with embolisation and without 39 without embolisation. Each group was comparable for different pneumothorax risk factors.
Results: There were 16 (47%) pneumothorax in Group A ("with embolisation"), which was significantly lower (p < .0001) than the 35 pneumothorax (90%) in Group B ("without embolisation"). The pneumothorax volume (p = .02) was significantly lower in Group A (22.7% average, standard deviation 15.6%) than in Group B (average 34.1%, standard deviation 17.1%). The number of drainages was significantly smaller in those with embolisation (3 drainages or 8%) than those without embolisation (25 drainages or 64%) (p < .001).
Conclusion: When using absorbable gelatin torpedoes, pulmonary RFA pathways embolisation significantly decreased the number of pneumothorax and thoracic drainages to the advantage of therapeutic abstention and exsufflation, non-invasive and functional operational techniques.
Keywords: Radiofrequency/microwave; interventional radiology; lung; pneumothorax.