Diagnostic Reliability, Accuracy and Safety of Ultrasound-guided Biopsy and Ascites Puncture in Primarily Inoperable Ovarian Tumours

Background/aim: To compare the diagnostic reliability, accuracy and safety of ultrasound-guided biopsy (Tru-Cut biopsy) and ascites puncture in patients with a primarily inoperable malignant ovarian tumor.

Patients and methods: This is a retrospective analysis of the studied methods in consecutively examined patients and a prospective validation of these methods. 79 women with a suspected primarily inoperable ovarian tumor underwent Tru-Cut biopsies and were included in the ultrasound-guided biopsy group. In addition, 55 patients after ascites puncture were enrolled in the comparison group. Both procedures were performed in 48 patients for the prospective validation.

Results: Significant differences in favour of ultrasound-guided biopsy were found in all studied variables (malignancy confirmation 72.9% vs. 95.8%, tumor origin 52.1% vs. 89.6%, histologic subtype 43.8% vs. 85.4% and accuracy, i.e. agreement of preoperative and definitive diagnosis 43.7% vs. 95.4%).

Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided biopsy is an accurate, reliable, safe and minimally invasive method. Owing to the high reliability and accuracy, it has the capacity to replace ascites puncture with cytologic examination or a more invasive method (laparoscopy, laparotomy) for adequate tumor sampling.