FINE-NEEDLE TISSUE ASPIRATION BIOPSY OF THE TESTIS

Objective: To develop a fine needle tissue aspiration biopsy technique that provides sufficient tissue for accurate histological assessment and research purposes. Design: After assessing different needles and d eveloping a method for handling small amounts of tissue, 87 patients u nderwent fine needle tissue aspiration biopsy. The quantity, quality, and appearance of the tissue was examined and adverse effects of the p rocedure were noted. Fine needle tissue aspiration and open biopsy sam ples were compared in 26 patients. Suitability of the tissue for flow cytometry and electron microscopy was also assessed. Results: The 20-g auge, 5-cm Menghini and Turner biopsy needles penetrated the testis mo re readily and recovered larger quantities of tissue. Adequate samples were recovered from 83% of cases (average of 21.8 tubule sections per testis) with the frequency of recovery and the amount of tissue obtai ned increasing through-out the study. Some distortions of the tissue w ere seen but these rarely intefered with the diagnosis. Although many patients suffered slight discomfort during the injection of the anesth etic, no serious complications were encountered during or after the pr ocedure. Comparison of fine needle tissue aspiration and open biopsy d iagnoses found either full agreement (56%) or slight differences (38%) in the degree of hypospermatogenesis. Conclusions: Fine needle tissue aspiration biopsy was found to be a quick, easy, repeatable, and repr oducible method of obtaining testicular tissue. No serious adverse eff ects of the procedure were detected and the diagnoses were found to be comparable to those obtained by open biopsy.