Brief report
Two Cases of Needle-Tract Seeding after Percutaneous Radiofrequency Ablation for Lung Cancer

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The authors describe two cases of needle-tract seeding after percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation for lung cancer. Needle biopsy was performed immediately before RF ablation in one case. In both cases, RF ablation was performed with a single internally cooled electrode, which was removed without cauterizing the electrode tract. The seeding nodule appeared 4 or 7 months after RF ablation and was then completely treated with a repeat RF ablation.

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Case Report

Institutional review board approval was needed for the performance of percutaneous RF ablation of the lung tumors under computed tomography (CT)–fluoroscopic guidance and the reporting of complications. Thus, we obtained institutional review board approval to perform the procedure and to report the present retrospective study. Furthermore, informed consent was also obtained from the patients before the procedure.

Needle-tract seeding was determined when follow-up CT scans showed a progressive

Discussion

The frequency of tumor seeding after RF ablation of hepatic tumors has been reported to be 0.2%–0.9% (7, 8, 9). Yamakado et al (6) have previously reported a single case of tumor seeding after RF ablation of lung cancer. In this case, needle biopsy was performed immediately before RF ablation and the tumor was identified as a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. RF ablation was performed by using an internally cooled electrode. The temperature at the electrode tip immediately after RF

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None of the authors have identified a conflict of interest.

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