CT-guided harpoon marking a ground-glass infiltrate: A case report

Abstract

Physicians are facing a growing challenge in characterizing suspicious pulmonary lesions through biopsy. Video thoracoscopic surgery is crucial for conducting surgical biopsies of these nodules. However, accurately identifying small pulmonary nodules, tiny, subsolid, and deep ones, remains a significant challenge due to the absence of digital palpation. One proposed technique for localization involves using a harpoon, initially designed for mammary nodules but also applied to pulmonary nodules. In cases involving solitary pulmonary nodules, histologic characterization is often necessary also accurate descriptions through computed tomography and the patient's clinical and epidemiologic context allow for a presumptive diagnosis. In this case, during an abdominal CT scan, a 49-year-old female patient was serendipitously found to have a ground-glass infiltrate in the anteromedial segment of the lower lobe of her left lung. Despite presenting with normal lung auscultation on physical examination, the increasing prevalence of subsolid lung nodules, combined with the contemporary era of minimally invasive surgery, prompted the medical team to employ CT-guided harpoon marking for precise lesion localization. Subsequent pathology analysis confirmed the presence of lepidic pattern adenocarcinoma. This case underscores the efficacy of the CT-guided harpoon marking approach, which significantly enhances surgical precision. Such precision is paramount in formulating individualized treatment strategies and follow-up plans for patients with similar clinical presentations.

Keywords

• Chest CT
• Harpoon
• Pure ground-glass opacity (p-GGO) infiltrates
• Video thoracoscopic surgery (VAST)