A sigh of relief: Lovelace has new technology to assist with lung biopsies

Patients at Lovelace Medical Center can breathe easier with Lovelace's newest robotic biopsy machine: the Ion Endoluminal System, a robotic bronchoscopy.

The Ion is a machine that can assist doctors during lung biopsies, getting into sections of the lung that doctors previously weren't able to reach. The machine and all its attachments costed $1.3 million, said Charlie Lucero, Lovelace administrative director of surgical services.

Dr. Jeffrey Mazer, pulmonologist at Lovelace, is the only doctor at the hospital trained with the machine. He uses the machine during biopsy appointments to help patients get faster answers on their conditions.

Introduced July 3, the Ion is a great example of how technology is shaping the medical field, Mazer said.

"I think the technology speaks for itself," he said. "This is evidence in how it's moving the field forward. It's a pretty amazing change."

Mazer said there are several benefits to Ion, such as access all lymph nodes, allowing for more comprehensive biopsies.

He also said there is a lower risk of patients getting pneumothorax during appointments, which helps protect patient health and avoid any additional complications. Typically, long needles used in biopsies can cause air to enter the pleural cavity, causing pneumothorax. With the Ion, needles are smaller, therefore lowering the potential of pneumothorax.

Mazer said one of the biggest benefits patients will have with the Ion is faster appointments with faster diagnoses. Biopsy appointments have decreased from two hours to 90 minutes, though Mazer believes the team will move faster once they have had more cases.

"There's still a learning curve, but we can access spots easier than before," he said. "To get that tissue without complications is a huge step."

Local Ion representative Jacelyn Pino said the team was more than ready for their five-week training with her earlier this year.The machine is new to the New Mexico medical market and as the Ion representative, Pino said her job is to provide training and assistance on surgeries by providing technical support for the machine.

"The team was really eager to starting training for the machine. We had a monthlong training so Mazer and his team were fully prepared when cases started.

"I think the Ion is such a great opportunity to grow in our community. People think New Mexico is behind on medical technology and this machine proves we're right on track," Pino said.

A biopsy with Dr. Mazer

Mazer and roughly seven other people sat inside a hospital room last week, preparing a patient for a biopsy.

Anesthesiologists administered medicine to safely put a patient to sleep while t he Ion machine sat next to the patient, waiting to be directed by Mazer.

Lead respiratory therapist Denton Donohue stood beside the base of the machine, feeding catheters and needles into the machine arm for the biopsy.

Mazer placed his palm on a large black ball sitting on the console of the machine. With a short brush of his hand, screens on the console came to life with messages and live video of the patient.

He started by placing a camera attachment on a catheters. With the camera, Mazer began to travel further inside the lungs to find any masses .

A large 3D map on a monitor displayed an image of the patient's lungs. Arrows on screen flashed directional prompts so Mazer knows which way he needs to turn the ball to get to the right place. With the amount of branches within the lung, the map can decrease time spent looking for the right pathways to any masses.

"You can think of the lungs like a tree with all of these different branches leading to other areas," Lucero said.

Donohue swapped the camera attachment on the catheter for a small needle. Masses can be hard to penetrate, according to Eric Oliver, director of cardiopulmonary services, so Mazer used the needle to slowly break into the mass. Once again, Donohue swapped attachments, this time placing a pair of forceps on.

Mazer and Donohue worked together to gently scrape small pieces of the mass on to the forceps. Once they collected a large enough sample , Donohue gave it to the on-site pathologist, who can quickly determine what the mass is and whether or not it is cancerous according to Mazer.

Mazer said this has allowed "a major change" in diagnosing patients with early cancer.

"We used to have to cut into someone if we needed to get to certain parts of the lung, and now you can get those samples without doing any of that," Mazer said.

Since its introduction to Lovelace , the machine has been used on 12 cases.