Electromagnetic Navigational Bronchoscopy: A Surgeon’s Perspective

Diagnostic yield of flexible bronchoscopy is often limited by the size and location of the lesion of interest. Novel technologies have evolved that can improve the accuracy and expand the applicability of flexible bronchoscopy in rendering a tissue diagnosis for pulmonary nodules. One recent technical advance uses electromagnetic guidance to improve the ability of the bronchoscopist to navigate within the lung parenchyma as well as to localize and biopsy mediastinal pathology. We have gained a preliminary experience with navigational bronchoscopy using electromagnetic guidance to successfully biopsy peripheral lung lesions, place fiducial catheters to aid stereotactic radiotherapy, and to biopsy mediastinal lymph nodes in the staging of lung cancer. Not only will navigational bronchoscopy lead to improvements in the diagnostic yield of standard flexible bronchoscopy, but we envision potential therapeutic modalities that can be used this system.