Needle aspiration biopsy of the pancreas at laparotomy

Thin needle aspiration biopsies obtained from the pancreas during laparotomy have been taken on 56 patients over the past six years. An 18- to 22-gauge spinal needle attached to a disposable syringe was employed. The specimens were fixed immediately and stained according to the method of Papanicolaou. Of the 36 carcinomas, the accuracy was 94%; there were no false positives in the 20 benign lesions. The safety, ease of interpretation and high accuracy of this method make this an extremely useful procedure.