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Surgeons at the Breast Care Center of New Jersey are using a new, minimally invasive breast biopsy technique that is simpler, less painful and allows patients to resume normal activities almost immediately.
Known as the ABBI procedure, this new approach can minimize the amount of pain, disfigurement and scarring associated with open biopsy and can be performed under local, instead of general anesthesia. The new technique takes less time than open surgery, but still allows the surgeon to remove the entire specimen for biopsy, which may eliminate the need for a second surgical procedure.
"the ABBI procedure allows us to take all of the tissue we need for an accurate
biopsy without ,taking more healthy tissue than necessary," said Dr. R.V. Ballem, at the Breast Care Center of New Jersey. "There is virtually no discomfort and because we just numb the area with local anesthesia, patients can leave the office an hour or two after the procedure." Each year, as many as I million women in the United States undergo breast biopsies to check for cancer. Although approximately- 80 percent of these biopsies are benign (not cancerous),
the American Cancer Society estimates that one out of every nine women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, making the need for accurate, early detection more important than ever.
An open breast biopsy is currently a two-step process, performed under general
anesthesia or heavy sedation, that begins in the radiology suite with a radiologist
manually placing a needle into the breast. The needle leaves a wire marker in the breast, the tip of which identifies the location of the lesion. The wire is left in place, taped to the outside of the breast, and the patient is moved to a surgical suite where the surgeon, using the wire marker as a removes it through an incision.
Because existing technology sometimes makes it difficult to insert the wire marker with a high degree of accuracy, doctors often remove more tissue than necessary--the size of a golf ball or larger--potentially leaving the patient with greater scarring. The ABBI procedure is a one-step process, performed under local anesthesia, that combines the placement of the wire marker and removal of the tissue sample into one, minimally invasive procedure. The patient is positioned on an ABBI system table with her breast placed through an opening. in the table. The breast is compressed between two paddles.
Stereotactic technology (X- Rays), incorporated into the ABBI system, allows the
surgeon to locate the lesion to within one millimeter of accuracy and insert a marking needle to "tag" the precise location. Using the ABBI biopsy device, the surgeon gently inserts a cannula (a narrow, tube- like device) into the breast to remove the entire specimen. The small opening is closed with a few stitches and a bandage.
The accuracy of the ABBI system's stereotactic technology enables the surgeon to remove the entire specimen while minimizing the amount of healthy tissue taken.And, unlike core needle biopsies, where multiple samples are removed, the ABBI instrument is inserted only once, to remove.the entire specimen. If the specimen proves to be cancerous, but pathology reports the entire margin of tissue surrounding the specimen is clean, it is up to thesurgeon to decide whether further surgical intervention, is needed.
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