PERCUTANEOUS PULMONARY NEEDLE BIOPSY REPORT OF 350 PATIENTS

¹ Department of Radiology.
² Department of Pathology.

Percutaneous needle aspiration biopsy of pulmonary lesions is a simple, safe, practical, and acceptable diagnostic procedure. The diagnostic yield of this procedure exceeds that of any other method, other than open thoracotomy. With the use of No. 16 or No. 18 thin-walled needles, image amplifier guidance, and needle guidance instruments, all lesions, either in central or peripheral portions of the lung, are accessible for biopsy.

Four hundred and ten needle aspiration biopsies were carried out on 350 patients. Of 290 confirmed cases, 190 were proven to be malignant by needle biopsy and 44 were proven to be benign. Two hundred and thirty-four patients out of 290 were diagnosed by needle biopsy—a biopsy success rate of 81 per cent. A second or third biopsy will significantly increase the number of satisfactory biopsies. The complications of a pneumothorax are of no consequence and can be immediately handled by the radiologist using a pneumothorax catheter. Other complications of subcutaneous emphysema, hemothorax, hematoma, or hemoptysis are usually self-limited and generally require no treatment. However, 2 deaths occurred out of 410 needle aspirations. Extremely debilitated patients should not be subjected to this procedure.

Needle biopsy should be used earlier and more frequently to shorten the diagnostic interval and to allow more prompt and definitive therapy for any persistent lung lesions which cannot be accurately or promptly diagnosed by conventional means.

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