Fine-needle aspiration versus drill-needle biopsy of thyroid nodules: a controlled clinical trial.

Percutaneous needle biopsy by two different methods was evaluated in a prospective controlled study of 167 consecutive patients with dominant thyroid nodules. Fine-needle aspiration was superior to high-speed drill-needle biopsy because of its higher diagnostic yield (93.9%). When a sample sufficient for diagnosis was obtained, the accuracy rate for both methods was comparable. Diagnostic errors were due to inadequate samples, difficulties in interpreting hypercellular adenomas, and geographic sampling problems. In the detection of thyroid cancer, neither technique alone appears completely adequate because of occasional false negative errors. The selection of patients for operation should depend on clinical parameters as well as the findings on fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules.