Diagnosis of nonexophytic nasopharyngeal lesion with endoscopy-guided core needle biopsy after narrow band imaging

BACKGROUND: Due to the obstruction of the surrounding structures or stiff mucosa, the primary and recurrent nonexophytic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NE-NPC) patients are difficult to be diagnosed histologically by traditional forceps biopsy. RESULTS: All the 15 cases had adequate biopsy for histological diagnosis. There were 5 cases of primary and 7 cases of recurrent NE-NPC, and 3 cases of inflammatory lesion. The histopathological diagnosis was consistent with the follow-up visit. The bleeding quantity during the CNB procedure ranged from 1 to 5 ml (mean 1.93 mL). The pain score during CNB were between 2 and 7 (mean 4.20). There were no serious complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From April 2009 to March 2016, after conventional white-light and novel narrow-band imaging, nasal endoscope-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) were performed on 15 cases of nonexophytic nasopharyngeal lesion with a semiautomatic biopsy gun. CONCLUSIONS: CNB is able to get adequate biopsy specimens and thus the diagnosis accuracy of CNB is high for NE-NPC. Nasal endoscope-guided CNB is the direct approach with a short distance in the tissue before reaching the tumor. It has the advantages of minimal trauma, short operative time, and no serious complications. It is simple, safe, and worth of application in clinic.