Benefits and Risks- Ultrasound Guided Breast Biopsy

Benefits

• The procedure is less invasive than surgical biopsy, leaves little or no scarring and can be performed in less than an hour.
• Ultrasound imaging uses no ionizing radiation.
• Ultrasound-guided breast biopsy reliably provides tissue samples that can show whether a breast lump is benign or malignant.
• An ultrasound guided breast biopsy exam is fast and avoids the need for ionizing radiation exposure.
• With ultrasound it is possible to follow the motion of the biopsy needle as it moves through the breast tissue.
• Ultrasound guided breast biopsy is able to evaluate lumps under the arm or near the chest wall, which are hard to reach with stereotactic biopsy.
• Ultrasound guided biopsy is less expensive than other biopsy methods, such as open surgical biopsy or stereotactic biopsy.
• Recovery time is brief and patients can soon resume their usual activities.

Risks

• There is a risk of bleeding and forming a hematoma, or a collection of blood at the biopsy site. The risk, however, appears to be less than one percent of patients.
• An occasional patient has significant discomfort, which can be readily controlled by non-prescription pain medication.
• Any procedure where the skin is penetrated carries a risk of infection.
• A biopsy of tissue located deep within the breast carries a slight risk that the needle will pass through the chest wall, allowing air around the lung that could collapse a lung. This is a rare occurrence.