Cone Beam CT Guided Robotic Navigational Bronchoscopy

Navigational bronchoscopy (NB) is used to access peripheral and central parenchymal lung lesions via endobronchial and transbronchial approach. Currently there are multiple platforms available to provide guidance to reach the peripheral and central lesions in the lung which are inaccessible via traditional video bronchoscopy. Traditionally NB is done under fluoroscopic guidance using C-arm but with development of Cone Beam CT and 3D reconstruction technology, fluoroscopy can be enhanced to much higher resolution and can also provide real time 3D augmentation of the lesion. It also enables the user to obtain a CT of the Chest to confirm the real time location of the lesion and the bronchoscopic biopsy catheter and instruments. This has proven to improve the yield and sensitivity of Navigational bronchoscopic guided Biopsy of the lung nodules and masses. Out of the various navigational platforms we have, most of them are based on Electromagnetic guidance and some on Shape sensing technology. Some of the platforms have fixed angle catheter while the newer robotic platforms have articulating catheters with much more range of motion. So far we do not have any data directly comparing the diagnostic yield of Electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy with Robotic shape sensing guided bronchoscopy while using Cone Beam CT and Augmented fluoroscopy with both the platforms. With my study, I want to examine the change in diagnostic yield and sensitivity of fixed angle ENB guided bronchoscopy and articulating robotic shape sensing bronchoscopy both using Cone Beam CT with 3D reconstruction.