PERCUTANEOUS BONE-BIOPSY, TECHNIQUES AND INDICATIONS

In the first part of this article we discuss some special technical as pects of percutaneous bone biopsy (PBB). But our main intention is to illuminate the critical indication of PBB against the background of th e diagnostic and clinical utility. Reliable indications for PBB are: l ytic metastases, solitary lytic lesions in a patient with known primar y tumour and infection. Sclerotic metastases and vertebral compression s, on the other hand, have a lower diagnostic utility. Negative biopsi es must be interpreted carefully and repeated if considered to be nonr epresentative The indication for percutaneous biopsy of primary bone t umours remains doubtful. Most of them require open biopsy.