Percutaneous liver biopsy, peritoneoscopy and laparotomy: an assessment of relative merits in the lymphomata.

The relative merits of percutaneous liver biopsy, peritoneoscopy directed liver biopsy and wedge liver biopsy during laparotomy were examined in a series of 100 consecutive untreated patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Sixteen of 77 patients had positive findings on percutaneous liver biopsy specimens, with the best yield in patients with nodular (21%) and diffuse (33%) poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma. Forty-nine of the 61 patients having negative percutaneous biopsies were subjected to peritoneoscopy and 9 additional positive biopsies were obtained. Thirty-two of the 40 patients having negative percutaneous and peritoneoscopy findings underwent laparotomy and wedge biopsy of the liver, and 8 specimens (25%) were positive for liver involvement; all but one of these were in patients with nodular or diffuse poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma. This study indicates that over two-thirds of untreated patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can be shown to have Stage IV disease without undergoing laparotomy, and that in the remaining patients, laparotomy proved of consistent value only in patients with poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma.