Quality assurance in a fine-needle aspiration biopsy service.

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is an increasingly popular tool for the evaluation of a variety of palpable and nonpalpable masses. Its acceptance has been based on its simplicity, safety, and accuracy. It is its accuracy that is crucial and that requires careful clinical and/or histologic follow-up. In order to satisfy our own department's quality assurance requirements, we developed a computer-based searching program that effectively identifies FNAB cases in which there was histologic follow-up and retrieves the necessary information to produce a meaningful quality assurance report.