Role of fine‐needle aspiration biopsy in the assessment of renal masses

Abstract

Clinical and histological control of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) diagnosis of 72 kidney masses observed between 1981 and 1988 confirmed 34 benign and 33 malignant lesions, but did not confirm four malignant and one benign lesions, giving a total diagnostic accuracy of 93.05%. The role of FNAB in selecting cases to be sent to surgery was investigated by comparing the incidence of useful surgery (for benign and primary malignant neoplasias) and the incidence of useless surgery (for nonneoplastic lesions and secondary malignant neoplasias) in nephrectomized patients who either had (group A, 27 patients) or didn't have (group B, 198 patients) preoperative FNAB. The differences were highly significant (P less than 0.001). Furthermore, patients operated for malignant neoplasias (20 in group A; 117 in group B) displayed highly significant differences (P less than 0.001) with respect to renal vein infiltration (1 in group A versus 22 in group B) and local-regional lymph node metastases (1 in group A versus 15 in group B). In conclusion, FNAB is a reliable method for selecting cases for surgery and for aiding in the diagnosis of malignant neoplasias.