Open AccessComputed Tomography-Guided Fine Needle Biopsies of Vertebral and Paravertebral Lesions in Small Animals
Author(s) -
Patricia Laborda-Vidal,
Myriam Martín,
Marc OrtsPorcar,
Laura Vilalta,
Antonio Meléndez-Lazo,
Alejandra García de Carellán Mateo,
Carlos Ros
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
animals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.584
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2076-2615
DOI - 10.3390/ani12131688
Subject(s) - medicine , radiology , computed tomography , percutaneous , biopsy , vertebra , medical diagnosis , intervertebral foramen , surgery , lumbar
Fine needle biopsy (FNB) is an effective, minimally invasive and inexpensive diagnostic technique. Under computed tomography (CT)-guidance, lesions that have a difficult approach can be sampled to reach a diagnosis. The aim of this study is to describe the use of CT-guidance to obtain FNB from vertebral and paravertebral lesions in small animals. Ten dogs and one ferret that had undergone CT-guided FNB of vertebral and paravertebral lesions and had a cytological or a histological diagnosis were included in this retrospective study. The FNB samples were taken in four cases from the vertebra, in two cases from the intervertebral disc and in five cases from the intervertebral foramen. Two infectious and nine neoplastic lesions were diagnosed. The percentage of successful FNB was 91%. The percentage of samples with a cytological diagnosis was 80%. The percentage of complications was 9%. Limitations were the small number of animals in the study, the lacking complementary percutaneous biopsies for comparison, the lacking final histological diagnoses in some cases and the intervention of multiple operators. Computed tomography-guided FNB is a useful and safe technique for the diagnosis of vertebral and paravertebral lesions in small animals. However, a degree of expertise is important.