CT-Guided Percutaneous Spine Biopsy in Suspected Infection or Malignancy: A Study of 214 Patients

Purpose: To retrospectively determine the effectiveness and accuracy of CT-guided percutaneous biopsy of malignant and inflammatory bone lesions of the spine and to assess the reliability of pre-biopsy CT and MRI. Materials and Methods: 214 patients with lesions of the spine, which were suspicious either for being malignant or inflammatory, underwent CT-guided biopsy for pathological and/or microbiological detection. Biopsy samples were sent for histological examination in 128/214 patients, for microbiological analysis in 17/214 patients and for both analyses in 69/214 patients. Retrospectively, the diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity/specificity of the pre-interventional imaging (CT and MRI) were determined. In addition, the influence of the biopsy on subsequent patient management was assessed. Results: The accuracy was 94.4% for histopathological analysis and 97.7% for microbiological analysis. In 25% of cases the microbiological analysis revealed an underlying pathogen that was not significantly affected by pre-biopsy antibiotic therapy. The sensitivity/specificity of the pre-biopsy cross-sectional imaging erning suspected malignancy was 69%/78%. For suspected infection, the sensitivity/specificity of pre-biopsy imaging was 81%/44%. In 52% of all cases, the biopsy result changed subsequent patient management. Conclusion: Percutaneous CT-guided spine biopsy is a useful and reliable diagnostic procedure to establish a definitive diagnosis but with a relatively low yield of microorganisms in the case of infection.