Utility of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration in splenic lesions

Indications of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of spleen have increased as more splenic lesions are detected because of advanced imaging techniques. A retrospective analysis of cytological material of 36 patients on whom ultrasound-guided splenic FNA was performed was done. No complications were noted. There were 16 inflammatory lesions, 12 neoplastic and 8 cases were reported as descriptive either because of scant cellularity, blood only, or normal splenic cytology. Inflammatory lesions included nine cases of acute abscess, five cases of tuberculosis, and one case each of leishmaniasis and infarct. Neoplastic lesions included two benign (benign cyst and inflammatory pseudotumor) and 10 malignant lesions. Among malignant lesions, eight were non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), one suspicious of NHL, and one desmoplastic small round cell tumor. FNA proved to be an effective procedure for reaching a microscopic tissue diagnosis and thus a splenectomy could be avoided in cases where it was not required.