ROLE OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF BREAST LUMPS AT THE KENYATTA-NATIONAL-HOSPITAL

During 1990-1991, all patients seen at the surgical out-patient clinic at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) with breast lumps had a fine- needle aspiration biopsy for diagnosis prior to open biopsy. Out of 10 5 that had corresponding surgical biopsies, 82 aspirates were consider ed satisfactory. Of these, the correct diagnosis was made in 59 (71%), another 12 (21%) were called benign but the correct histologic diagno sis was not made, 7 (8.5%) were correctly called negatives. The diagno stic accuracy of this method in differentiating benign from malignant was 95% in this study.