Blunt-End Needle Biopsy of Pleura and Rib

The frequent involvement of parietal pleura in thoracic diseases has been confirmed by numerous studies of pleural tissue obtained at postmortem examination, surgery, thoracoscopy, and needle biopsy.¹ Efforts to secure pleural tissue by needle aspiration, particularly in patients with an effusion, have been reported many times but with highly variable conclusions regarding the diagnostic value of the procedure. In this country the Vim-Silverman or endbiting type of biopsy instrument generally has been used.² With this needle, an "insufficient specimen" was obtained in from 10% to 40% of the patients studied.^1,3-7 Misra and Sharma were able to obtain pleural tissue with every attempt, but in an unspecified number repeat biopsy was necessary to obtain a specimen adequate for study.⁸ At our institution efforts to secure pleural specimens with the Vim-Silverman needle failed so frequently that the procedure was abandoned. Dr. Constantin Cope devised a new instrument^* to.