[Focal hepatic lesions. Their diagnosis by fine-needle (25 G) aspiration puncture]

151 patients with focal lesions of the liver underwent percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy under ultrasonographic control. We used 25 G needles, the thinnest available. Aspiration biopsy was performed on malignant disease in 122 cases, and on benign disease in 29 cases. There were 3 false negatives diagnosis and 2 minor complications. The overall accuracy of the cytologic evaluations was 91.2%, with a sensitivity of 89.1% and specificity of 100%. Guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy is recommended for a morphological diagnosis of focal liver lesions, because of its simplicity, safety and high degree of correct diagnosis.