Pneumothorax Incidence with Normal Saline Instillation for Sealing the Needle Track after Computed Tomography-Guided Percutaneous Lung Biopsy.

To determine whether instillation of normal saline solution for sealing the needle track reduces incidence of pneumothorax and chest tube placement after computed tomography-guided percutaneous lung biopsy. A total of 242 computed tomography-guided percutaneous lung biopsies performed at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed, including 93 biopsies in which the needle track was sealed by instillation of 3–5 ml of normal saline solution during needle withdrawal (water seal group) and 149 biopsies without sealing (control group). Patient and lesion characteristics, procedure-specific variables, pneumothorax and chest tube placement rates were recorded. Baseline characteristics were comparable in both groups. There was a statistically significant decrease in the pneumothorax rate (19.4