CT-guided aspirations for the body: comparison of hand guidance with stereotaxis.

Forty computed tomography (CT)-assisted aspirations performed with only hand guidance were prospectively compared with 40 performed with a CT body-stereotaxic system. Although there was no statistically significant difference in lesion size and path length between the two groups, use of stereotaxis compared with hand guidance decreased by 75% the number of needle manipulations required to place a needle within a lesion. With the stereotaxic method, only 43 needle manipulations were required to confirm a needle placement in 40 lesions, with no lesion requiring more than two attempts. Use of stereotaxis decreased the number of localization scans by 80% and biopsy time by 50%. It is concluded that CT-guided needle placements with hand guidance are often inaccurate and, unless the lesion is large, require multiple needle manipulations to place a needle within the lesion. Stereotaxis-guided biopsies, on the other hand, decrease radiation exposure, biopsy time, and trauma from multiple needle punctures.