[Ultrasound-guided fine needle puncture of the abdominal organs: indications, results, risks]

2072 patients underwent ultrasonically guided fine-needle biopsy. 1384 patients could be assessed with regard to the final diagnosis. 854 patients underwent fine-needle biopsy of the liver, 322 of the pancreas and 218 of retroperitoneal lesions. The effective sampling rate was 97% for liver biopsies, 86% for pancreas biopsies and 87% for the biopsy of the retroperitoneum. The sensitivity for the detection of malignancies was 90% in liver biopsies, 69% in pancreatic biopsies and 85% in biopsies of the retroperitoneum. The specificity of cytological findings was 100%. Complications occurred in 13 cases. There were two fatalities due to of bleeding, resulting in a complication rate of 0.6% and a lethality of 0.1% of all biopsied patients. The biopsy of the liver proved most dangerous with a complication rate of 1.4%. The bleeding risk of a haemangioma (2.5%) was nearly the same as the bleeding risk of a malignant liver tumour (1.5%).