Objective:

To study the occurrence of pneumothorax in lung cancer treated by computed tomography (CT)-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and its related risk factors.

Methods:

A total of 157 patients (196 lesions in total) with lung cancer confirmed by imaging and pathological examination in Henan Chest Hosp

ital from June 2016 to July 2020 were included. And 228 RFA patients were followed up according to the principle of 1

3 and 6 months after surgery

and then re-examined every 6 months to evaluate the ablation effect based on the results of chest enhanced CT. Clinical data

mortality

and treatment-related pneumothorax were recorded

followed by data analysis.

Results:

Follow-up was performed to July 2021

and 27 patients were died (23 from tumor progression and 4 from pulmonary infection). Treatment-related pneumothorax occurred in 17 cases (10.82%). Univariate analysis showed that the longest diameter of tumor (

2

=2.22

P

=0.03)

tumor location (

2

=2.85

P

=0.004)

number of puncture (

2

=2.71

P

=0.007) and ablation time (

2

=2.16

P

=0.03) were adverse risk factors for the development of treatment-related pneumothorax

while multivariate analysis showed that the location of tumor (OR=0.89

P

=0.04) and number of puncture (OR=0.76

P

=0.02) were independent risk factors for the development of treatment-related pneumothorax.

Conclusion:

CT-guided RFA for lung cancer is a safe and minimally invasive method

and reducing the number of puncture can effectively reduce the occurrence of treatment-related pneumothorax.