Prostatic needle examination: current clinical concepts.

A survey of urologic training programs was undertaken to determine the clinical usage of needle biopsy technics in evaluating prostatic disease. The most popular procedure was transperineal (57%), performed on an inpatient basis (62%). Transrectal biopsy was slightly less popular (43%), with 100% of the surveyed institutions using prebiopsy antibiotic coverage versus only 24% with the transperineal technic. An average of 3.25 cores per biopsy procedure were obtained. Various advantages and disadvantages of each procedure including the use of anesthesia and analgesia are discussed and future direction is proposed.