Aim: In our clinic we have gathered more than 750 cases of CT-guided transthoracic fine needle aspiration (FNA). This procedure is very useful for the diagnosis of mediastinal/pulmonary tumor masses. Because of the relatively high cost of this procedure, we tried to find out a less expensive but still reliable way to get the diagnosis for these tumors, and for this reason we figure out an original approach.
Methods: The study population consisted of 160 patients divided in two groups. To first group we applied the classic method using the conventional needles and the Papanicolaou stain. For the second group we used the spinal anesthetic needle and an original stain (blue--polychrome--tanine--Dragan). The chi2 test was used to match the results and complications between the two groups.
Results: This study prove that this original method is as reliable as the classic one but with a ten-fold reduction of costs: 1,198 euro versus 128 euro per 100 smears.
Conclusions: Choosing of this original method for the diagnosis of mediastinal/pulmonary tumors through transthoracic FNA is justified by the low cost, simple technique and the same reliability as the classic method.