Stereotactic biopsy in cerebral lesions of AIDS.

The experiences with stereotactic biopsies in 121 patients with AIDS compared to 142 non-AIDS patients are presented. In the AIDS group most of the tumors (38) were lymphomas (34). Other frequent diagnoses have been progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (20) and toxoplasmosis (16)--although most AIDS patients already had been treated for toxoplasmosis, and those who responded to it did not undergo biopsy. Initially among the AIDS patients there was a tendency of delayed intracranial bleeding (4 cases, 3 of them fatal). After initiation of a prophylactic coagulopathy protocol no other such complications have occurred in the following 70 biopsies.