[Value and risks of percutaneous cytological puncture in the preoperative assessment of pancreas tumors].

In a period of a little over two years 34 preoperative fine needle aspiration biopsies were performed in 32 patients with a possible malignant lesion of the pancreas. A cytological diagnosis of cancer was obtained in 22 patients. On follow-up 27 patients, in whom 28 biopsies were performed, proved to have a malignant tumour. The overall sensitivity of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosing a malignancy was 77.8%. There were no false positive results (specificity: 100%). Three patients developed serious biopsy-related complications. This relatively low sensitivity and the fact that a biopsy is not without risk leads to the advice not to perform preoperative fine needle aspiration biopsies as a routine in patients in whom curative or palliative surgery is indicated. Percutaneous biopsy is advised and can be useful if no indication for surgery is present because of the patient's condition or the extent of the disease and non-surgical palliation is the treatment of choice.