Needle Aspiration Biopsy: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy was used to diagnose lesions from the breast, subcutaneous nodules and lymph nodes, prostate, deep masses, lung, and pancreas. Over an eight-year period, 3,267 specimens were examined. The biopsy specimens were taken with 18- to 22-gauge disposable needles with attached syringes, were fixed immediately, and were stained according to the method of Papanicolaou. Frequently, the aspiration was done as an office procedure. The method was essentially complication-free. The biopsy specimen was easy to interpret, and the procedure had an overall accuracy of approximately 90%. It should be used by all clinicians, especially on the initial visit of the patient.

Role of Percutaneous Fine Needle Aspiration in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer: Our Experience with 140 Patients

“…From our own experience and agreeing with litera ture reports, the most common complication is the pneumothorax (14 cases): in almost all cases, this involves the small pneumothoraces which regress spontaneously [7,12]. The most serious complication, where an operation was required, involved a patient with a single pulmonary metastasis of a kidney tumor.…”

“…Our experience as well is similar to that reported in literature [8], FNA, although it offers results similar to those with exfoliative cytology, is still not routinely used [4,11,21], The repetition of the examination in the case of negativity, though pos sible, presents inconveniences: although minimal, the method causes trauma to the patient. Finally, needle aspiration is never entirely free of complications [1,5,6,9], In light of the above, it is obvious that per cutaneous FNA cannot represent the first-line exam ination for the identification of the histological type of lung tumor [7], We must consider that where the bronchoscopic examination and exfoliative cytology are not able to give a reliable response, FNA remains an important diagnostic method [11,15,16], Con traindications to FNA are: chronic respiratory insuf ficiency, pulmonary arterial hypertension, impairment of coagulation, highly vascularized lesions, suspected echinococcosis and poor general conditions [12,20,24], This technique is not altogether new. The first experimenting was performed by Menetrier [19] in 1886, diagnosing a lung tumor with aspiration, carried out by means of a transthoracic cannula.…”

Diagnostic accuracy of cytology and biopsy in primary bronchial carcinoma.

“…Malignant cells were found in 86% of aspiration needle biopsies by Kline and Neal (1978) and in 77% of similar biopsies by Francis (1977). Needle biopsy produces a different cytological picture from that usually encountered in exfoliative cytology, be it sputum or bronchial aspirate.…”

Fine-needle biopsy of the pancreas using real-time ultrasonography

“…Fine-needle aspiration biopsy has been used for the diagnosis of lesions in different organs, especially the lung, breast, and kidney [1][2][3][4][5][6]. More recently, computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US) have been used in conjunction with percutaneous fine-needle biopsy for the diagnosis of both benign and malignant lesions of the pancreas, liver, retroperitoneum, spleen, and other abdominal organs [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”