Characterizing a learning curve for robotic-assisted bronchoscopy: Analysis of skills acquisition in a high-volume academic center

Shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is an emerging technology for the sampling of pulmonary lesions. We seek to characterize the shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy learning curve at an academic center. Shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy procedures performed by 9 proceduralists at a single institution were analyzed. Cumulative sum analyses were performed to examine diagnostic sampling and procedure time over each operator’s first 50 cases, with the acceptable yield threshold set to 73%. During the study period, 442 patients underwent sampling of 551 lesions. Each operator sampled 61 lesions (interquartile range, 60-63 lesions). Lesion size was 1.90 cm (interquartile range, 1.33-2.80 cm). The median procedure time for single-target cases decreased from 62 minutes during the first 10 cases to 39 minutes after case 40 (P