The usefulness of percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy in infants and children.

During the past 2 years percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy has been employed to help establish or confirm diagnosis in 32 infants and children. A 22-gauge needle is used to aspirate the site of suspected disease. For lesions inside the chest or abdomen, the needle is guided with the help of fluoroscopy, ultrasound, or computed tomography (CT) scan. Nineteen of the 32 patients had malignant disease, including lymphoma, neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, osteosarcoma, and leukemia. In all patients with solid tumors, tissue obtained at operation confirmed the accuracy of the diagnosis. In seven children with suspiciously enlarged lymph nodes, an open biopsy was avoided when the needle aspirate was clearly benign. In four children, the early appearance of metastatic or recurrent malignancy was confirmed without the need for open biopsy. In this small series, there were no false-negative or false-positive needle aspirates, and no complications directly related to the procedure. The skill and experience of the cytopathologist is essential to the success of this technique. Percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a safe and reliable alternative method of establishing a diagnosis in infants and children with suspected malignant disease.