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Pain levels associated with ultrasound‐guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy for neck masses
Author(s) -
Lo WuChia,
Cheng PoWen,
Wang ChiTe,
Yeh ShuTin,
Liao LiJen
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.23303
Subject(s) - medicine , visual analogue scale , fine needle aspiration , biopsy , local anesthesia , ultrasound , thyroid , anesthesia , radiology , nodule (geology) , neck pain , surgery , pathology , paleontology , alternative medicine , biology
Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the pain levels associated with ultrasound‐guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of neck masses. Methods The pain immediately and 5 minutes after the procedure without use of local anesthesia was evaluated via 100‐mm visual analog scale (VAS), 11‐point numeric rating scale (NRS), and 4‐category verbal rating scale (VRS) in 154 patients. Results The mean scores (SDs) for VAS, NRS, and VRS immediately versus 5 minutes after the procedure were 30.5 (24.4) versus 7.3 (13.7), 3.3 (2.2) versus 0.8 (1.6), and 1.3 (0.6) versus 0.3 (0.6), respectively (all p s < .001). Immediately after ultrasound‐guided FNAB, the pain scores associated with lymph node aspiration (VAS, 36.7 [25.5]; NRS, 3.9 [2.1]) were significantly higher (both p s < .05) than those associated with thyroid nodule aspiration (VAS, 25.0 [21.2]; NRS, 2.8 [2.0]). Conclusion Ultrasound‐guided FNAB of thyroid nodules was less painful than that of cervical lymphadenopathy. Most patients tolerated mild transient pain after the procedure without use of local anesthesia. Nevertheless, local anesthesia was necessary for the small subgroup of patients who experienced significant pain. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 36: 252–256, 2014