Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University Completes Its First PET/CT-Guided Interventional Puncture Procedure

From August 21 to 22, Professor Sun Long from the PET Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University was invited to the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University for academic exchange, and on the following day provided on-site guidance for the hospital's first PET/CT-guided interventional puncture procedure. The successful completion of this procedure marks a new clinical practice milestone for the department in the field of interventional nuclear medicine.

On August 21, Professor Sun Long delivered a special lecture titled "Exploration of Clinical Integrated Application of Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine and Interventional Nuclear Medicine Based on the PET Platform," focusing on how the PET platform extends from disease diagnosis and precise localization to interventional diagnosis and treatment. Drawing on clinical practice and typical cases, he introduced the application approaches of interventional nuclear medicine in lesion identification, target area selection, path planning, and diagnostic-therapeutic coordination. After the lecture, relevant case evaluation and procedure preparation were promptly initiated.

On the morning of August 22, the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, in collaboration with the ICU team, performed a PET/CT-guided puncture and drainage for an ICU patient in the PET/CT suite. The patient required further interventional management due to a subcapsular abscess in the right hepatic lobe and needed continuous ventilator support throughout the examination and procedure, imposing high demands on patient transport, positioning, lesion localization, puncture path design, life support, and team coordination.

After thorough assessment of the patient's condition and completion of preoperative preparation, the Department of Nuclear Medicine, under the on-site guidance of Professor Sun Long, completed lesion localization and puncture path planning using the PET/CT imaging platform. During the procedure, nuclear medicine physicians, technologists, nursing staff, and the ICU clinical team worked in close collaboration. From patient transport and positioning to imaging localization, path selection, needle insertion verification, and drainage, each step was seamlessly coordinated, ultimately achieving successful puncture and drainage.

PET/CT not only provides anatomical localization information but also reveals the metabolic and molecular biological characteristics of lesions. This procedure combined PET/CT imaging information with interventional techniques, providing support for developing more targeted interventional plans for complex critically ill patients, and accumulating practical experience for the hospital's future standardized implementation of PET/CT-guided precision puncture, biopsy, and related interventional techniques.

It was noted that the transition from special lecture to clinical implementation took only one day, reflecting the efficiency of translating academic exchange into clinical application. In the next phase, the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University will continue to build on clinical needs, leverage the advantages of PET/CT in integrating anatomical, metabolic, and molecular information, strengthen collaboration with relevant clinical disciplines, and steadily explore the application of interventional nuclear medicine techniques.