Pleural biopsy with the Vim-Silverman needle

Pleural Biopsy in Diagnosis of Thoracic Disease

“…Hampson and Karlish (1961) believe that in the early stages of tuberculous effusions negative results may be obtained, since time has not been allowed for the formation of the characteristic tubercles; they suggest that if a negative biopsy report is obtained in a case of suspected tuberculous effusion a second biopsy should always be performed two weeks later. Another possible cause of a negative biopsy in these cases is previous antituberculosis chemotherapy (Misra and Sharma, 1959). However, in our series the first biopsy was performed prior to chemotherapy in all cases subsequently proved to have pulmonary tuberculosis.…”