The safety and diagnostic value of frame-based and CT-guided stereotactic brain biopsy technique.

AIM Histopathological diagnosis is always necessary to make an effective treatment plan for intracranial mass lesions. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy, and associated mortality and morbidity of CT-guided stereotactic biopsy procedures in a large number of patients with intracranial lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 290 cases undergoing CT-guided stereotactic biopsy for intracranial lesions were included in this retrospective study. Clinical, radiological and histological data in patient records were examined. RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 46.6 years (range: 2-82 y). Pediatric patients comprised 6.3% (n=13) of the total population. Examination of paraffin embedded histological preparations revealed a tumoral mass in 240 (82.8%), a non-tumoral mass in 37 (12.8%), and non-definable lesions in 13 (4.5%). Therefore, the diagnostic value in this series was 95.5%. Postoperative mortality rate was 0.8% (n=2). When histopathological diagnoses made after biopsy and surgical resection were compared in 42 patients with available data, a complete or partial agreement was present in 90.5%. CONCLUSION Our findings support that frame based-stereotactic biopsy is a safe and valuable technique that allows the neurosurgeon to obtain tissue samples for histopathological diagnosis of intracranial mass lesions in almost any region.