Awareness And Utilization Of Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB) Among Doctors In A Teaching Hospital In Nigeria

Abstract

Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been in practice for quite sometime now. It is however not commonly requested for by doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. This study was carried out to determine the awareness and utilization of FNAB. It aims at encouraging medical practitioners to avail themselves of the benefits of this procedure as an aid to diagnosis of some tumours. Whereas 112 out of 113 (99.1%) of doctors surveyed have heard of FNAB and 112 (99.1%) think that FNAB is necessary, only 49 doctors (43.3%) have ever requested for it. Although 46 out of 56 (82.1%) doctors claimed that fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is relevant to the management of their patients, as high as 89.1% of them have low request (0-5times) for the procedure. Only 2 out of 110 doctors (1.8%) have requested for FNAC on more than 10 occasions. Also all of those who made these requests were doctors in Consultant category. This, coupled with the fact that 102 out of 113 (90.3%) of doctors did not have adequate knowledge of the utilization of FNAB as a diagnostic procedure for tumour detection during undergraduate training, implies that the experience with the utilization of FNAB among consultants was acquired during postgraduate training. There is need to emphasize the usefulness of FNAC as a diagnostic procedure in tumour detection during undergraduate training. The contribution of FNAB to the overall health care delivery system is highlighted.

Keywords: Fine needle aspiration biopsy, Awareness, Utilization.

Annals of Biomedical Sciences Vol. 6 (2) 2007: pp. 6-12