Objective: To assess the effect and safety of subpleural multisite anesthesia based on the area of thermal radiation during CT-guided lung malignancy microwave ablation (MWA) on the incidence of moderate or severe pain and the analgesic drug usage.
Materials and methods: Consecutive patients with lung malignancies were retrospectively evaluated between January 2016 and December 2019. Patients undergoing CT-guided lung malignancy MWA were either given in the method of (a) standard subpleural puncture point anesthesia between January 2016 and June 2018 and (b) subpleural multisite anesthesia based on the area of thermal radiation between July 2018 and December 2019. The relationship between local anesthesia mode and moderate or severe pain, and pain medications usage was assessed by using multivariable logistic regression models.
Results: A total of 243 consecutive patients were included in the study. Moderate or severe pain occurred in 84 of 124 (67.7%) patients with subpleural puncture point anesthesia and in 20 of 119 (16.8%) patients with subpleural anesthesia in the area of thermal radiation (p=.001). The intravenous pain medication was required in 56 of 124 (45.2%) patients with subpleural puncture point anesthesia and in 9 of 119 (7.6%) patients with subpleural multisite anesthesia based on the area of thermal radiation (p=.001). Local anesthesia methods (p = 0.001), pleura-to-lesion distance (p=.02) and tumor size (p=.015) were independent risk factors for developing moderate or severe pain. There were no differences in adverse events and local tumor progression rate.
Conclusions: Subpleural multisite anesthesia based on the area of thermal radiation for peripheral lung malignancy MWA can result in lower intraprocedural pain compared with the subpleural puncture point anesthesia. Thus, a subpleural multisite anesthesia technique may be most helpful when performing MWA of peripheral malignancy in patients who are not sedated with general or intravenous anesthesia.
Keywords: Microwave ablation; lung malignancy; pain; subpleural multisite anesthesia.