W. Konermann et al., Ultrasonographically guided needle biopsy of benign and malignant soft tissue and bone tumors, J ULTR MED, 19(7), 2000, pp. 465-471
In 65 patients an ultrasonographically guided needle biopsy was performed f
or histologic diagnosis of benign and malignant soft tissue and bone tumors
. On the basis of the histopathologic findings, a final diagnosis could be
made in 54 cases after sonographically guided needle biopsy of the soft tis
sue tumor component. In addition, tumor grouping was possible in seven case
s; however, due to the small volume of the biopsy specimen, further tumor d
ifferentiation proved to be unsuccessful. A definite diagnosis was not poss
ible in four patients, who had mainly cystoid tumors; however, malignancy c
ould be ruled out in three of these cases. The decisive advantage of the ul
trasonographically guided needle biopsy procedure over what is known as a b
lind tumor biopsy is that the biopsy needle can be positioned exactly by me
ans of imaging control. The ultrasound screen enables the user to monitor t
he biopsy procedure; multiple biopsies of different parts of the tumor soft
tissue component can be performed using a single needle tract. No complica
tions occurred in our study. Because of the far-reaching consequences of ul
trasonographically guided needle biopsy this type of procedure should be pe
rformed only at tumor centers.