PERCUTANEOUS BIOPSY OF THE SPINE UNDER CT GUIDANCE - REVIEW OF 104 CASES

Percutaneous biopsies (PB) of the spine under CT guidance have become an important diagnostic tool in managing tumoral or infectious disease of the spine. This retrospective review reports the results of 104 bi opsies of the spine, except the cervical spine, performed in 98 patien ts (66 females and 55 males), aged from 3 to 92 years, without complic ations. The overall accuracy is 71% but it must be emphasized that the diagnostic accuracy in tumoral lesions is 100% whereas in the case of suspected fectious lesions the accuracy falls to 61.5%. Our view is t hat the negative results are independent of the technique and we propo se a second biopsy before considering a surgical approach. We conclude that this technique is safe, accurate and easy to perform, not only d ue to the advantages of CT but also to the improvement in biopsy needl es and histocytologic techniques.