title: Needle aspiration biopsy of the pancreas at laparotomy.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010179:Pancreas / Q000473:pathology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*