[CT-guided large-bore biopsy of solid non-organ-bound space-occupying lesions in the retroperitoneum]

Seventy-eight solid, non-organic retroperitoneal tumours were biopsied with a 14-gauge Tru-Cut needle in 73 consecutive patients with the exception of one. Adequate material was not obtained in only one patient with the primary known (1.3%). In the adequate material (98.7%), the dignity of all lesions was accurately determined and 93.1% of lesions were accurately classified. Typing accuracy reached 100% in histologically known primaries (n = 31) and 87.8% in histologically unknown primaries (n = 41). A hypertensive crisis and a small haematoma following biopsy of an inadvertent extra-adrenal phaeochromocytoma was the single complication found in this series. An arterial bleeding following biopsy was prophylactically embolised through the biopsy needle. CT-guided large-bore biopsy of solid non-organic retroperitoneal tumours is a safe, non-invasive procedure with a high diagnostic yield that obviates the need for open diagnostic procedures in a large number of cases.