Ultrasound-guided bone lesions biopsies - a systematic review.

Abstract

Ultrasound (US) is a highly valuable imagistic tool used to guide numerous interventional procedures. The USguided bone lesions biopsy has not yet received a consensus or a guideline. We aimed to evaluate the evidence to support theUS role in guiding bone lesions biopsies. A computer literature search of PubMed was conductedusing the keywords "ultrasound" and "bone biopsy", in order to detect relevant studies regarding the aim of our analysis.Records were screened for eligible studies and data were extracted and analyzed. We included 23 studies (n=610patients) in the final analysis. The specificity and diagnostic yield of US guided biopsy were very good (between 78-100%),depending on the type and dimensions of the bone lesions. The type of the biopsy - aspiration or cutting - influenced theresults. The studies which included larger groups showed a better performance for cutting needles (83.3-100% vs 50-80.5%for aspiration). The size of the bone lesion influences the diagnostic yield of the US guided bone biopsy. Most of the studiesreported nil post-procedural complications. Core needle biopsy provided better diagnostic yield compared to fineneedle aspiration. The number of the passages of the cutting needle biopsies in order to achieve the best diagnostic yield wasthree. Further studies are needed in order to standardize US-guided bone lesions biopsy and increase its role in the diagnosisalgorithm of the bone lesions.