Introduction: Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology is commonly carried out in the head and neck. The aim was to examine the amount of pain experienced by patients undergoing this procedure carried out without the use of local anaesthetic.
Methods: A questionnaire was given to 109 consecutive patients undergoing ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology containing a visual analogue scale. Patients were asked to mark with a vertical line on the 100 mm horizontal scale amount of pain they experienced during the biopsy. The pain was subsequently categorised as 'no pain', 'mild pain', 'moderate pain' or 'severe pain' based on previous pain studies.
Results: Hundred patients completed the visual analogue scale section of the questionnaire satisfactorily. Twenty-one patients experienced no pain, 62 experienced mild pain and 17 experienced moderate pain. No patients experienced severe pain. Further analysis showed that females had significantly higher visual analogue scale scores (Mann-Whitney test: U = 925.5, z = 2.211, P = 0.027). Patients who were aware that they were going to have a biopsy had significantly lower visual analogue scale scores than those who were not aware (Mann-Whitney test: U = 859.5, z = 2.263, P = 0.024).
Conclusions: Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology is generally a well-tolerated procedure with pain scores being higher in females. It is advised that patients are told by the referring clinician the need for biopsy as this reduces the amount of pain experienced.
Keywords: Biopsy; pain; ultrasound.