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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Radiol Imaging 2021; 31(04): 956-960
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1741094
Pictorial Essay

Soft-Tip Stylet and Saline Instillation Technique: Making Difficult Percutaneous CT-Guided Biopsies Possible

Zafar Neyaz
1   Department of Radiodiagnosis, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
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Abstract

Finding a safe needle path during percutaneous computed tomography-guided biopsy is sometimes difficult due to concern for injuring a vital structure. Saline instillation technique has been used to displace the structure out of the way. Another useful tool is a soft-tip stylet. A soft-tip also referred as blunt-tip stylet for the introducer cannula is provided with some coaxial biopsy sets in additional to standard sharp-tip stylet. While the sharp-tip stylet is fitted with introducer cannula for piercing skin, muscle, and fascia, a soft-tip stylet may be used for avoiding injury to structures like vessels and bowel loops especially while advancing introducer cannula through fatty tissue. Additionally, it is also useful for avoiding injury to nerves and giving pleural anesthesia. Although its use has been described in medical literature, many radiologists are still not utilizing this tool to its full potential. In this educational exhibit, various applications of soft-tip stylet and saline instillation technique have been depicted using representative cases.

Keywords

percutaneous CT-guided biopsy - saline instillation technique - soft-tip stylet

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Publication History

Article published online:
10 January 2022

© 2022. Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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