A new marking technique for peripheral lung nodules avoiding pleural puncture: the intrathoracic stamping method.

While performing thoracoscopic wedge resection of the lung, the location of the lesion is generally identified by visual inspection or palpation. When difficulty in identification of the lesion by thoracoscopy is anticipated, preoperative marking is performed. However, complications and technical difficulties plague current marking techniques. To overcome this problem, we designed a new, safe and easy marking technique that avoids pleural puncture, called the intrathoracic stamping method.