• Journal of neurosurgery · Feb 2023

    Use of fluorescein sodium-assisted intraoperative sample validation to maximize the diagnostic yield of stereotactic brain biopsy: progress toward a new standard of care?

    • Andrea Bianco, Mattia Del Maestro, Andrea Fanti, Chiara Airoldi, Thomas Fleetwood, Emanuela Crobeddu, and Christian Cossandi.
    • 1Department of Neurosurgery, Maggiore della Carità University Hospital, Novara, Italy.
    • J. Neurosurg. 2023 Feb 1; 138 (2): 358366358-366.

    ObjectiveIn patients with contraindication to open resection, histological diagnosis is obtained through a stereotactic biopsy (SB). Missed diagnoses and sampling errors are important limitations of SB; therefore, various ways have been proposed to increase the diagnostic yield (DY). Intraoperative histopathology can obtain a DY exceeding 98% but with several drawbacks, namely prolonged operative times and logistic concerns. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether intraoperative validation of samples with fluorescein sodium can obtain a high DY with the same ease of use as standard SB.MethodsOne hundred three consecutive cases of frameless neuronavigated SB performed at the authors' center from May 2013 to June 2021 were included. Two groups were compared: 46 patients underwent standard nonassisted SB (nSB), and 57 patients underwent fluorescein sodium-assisted SB (fSB). Data were collected retrospectively before 2017 and prospectively thereafter. DY, operative time, and rate of complications were compared between the two groups. The surgical technique for fSB was standardized, and a novel classification system for intraoperative fluorescence findings was developed.ResultsStatistically significant differences between the two groups were identified. The DY of the fSB group (100%, 95% CI 93.73%-100%) was significantly greater than that of the nSB group (89.13%, 95% CI 80.14%-98.13%) (p = 0.0157). No statistically significant differences were observed in terms of mean operative time (p = 0.7104), intraoperative complications (p = 0.999), or postoperative complications (p = 0.5083).ConclusionsCompared with standard nSB, fSB showed a significantly higher DY and similar surgical time and rate of complications. The ease of use, wide diagnostic spectrum, and low cost make fluorescein sodium preferable to other fluorophores. The present study strengthens the limited data in the literature indicating routine use of fSB. The proposed workflow suggests that fSB should be the standard of care for contrast-enhanced cases. Intraoperative histopathology should be limited to nonenhancing cases, and nSB should be avoided. Future prospective multicenter studies will be useful for further validation of our findings.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.