[CT-guided percutaneous puncture-biopsy of the spine. Review of 104 cases].

Percutaneous biopsies (PB) of the spine under CT guidance have become an important diagnostic tool in managing tumoral or infectious disease of the spine. This retrospective review reports the results of 104 biopsies of the spine, except the cervical spine, performed in 98 patients (66 females and 55 males), aged from 3 to 92 years, without complications. The overall accuracy is 71% but it must be emphasized that the diagnostic accuracy in tumoral lesions is 100% whereas in the case of suspected infectious lesions the accuracy falls to 61.5%. Our view is that the negative results are independent of the technique and we propose a second biopsy before considering a surgical approach. We conclude that this technique is safe, accurate and easy to perform, not only due to the advantages of CT but also to the improvement in biopsy needles and histocytological techniques.