How does a biopsy needle work?

Biopsy needles are available in different lengths and with different inner diameters. A biopsy needle is a hollow needle. If a syringe is placed on a biopsy needle, a negative pressure can be created.

This allows the tissue cylinder to be sucked in and sucked into the interior of the needle. This is called aspiration. Today, most biopsy needles work fully or semi-automatically. Furthermore, there are special needles, like the vacuum biopsy, which consists of an outer and an inner needle.

What are the risks of a biopsy?

Risks with a biopsy can be bleeding and bruising at the donor site. They are more common than the other risks. The risk of bleeding is increased if organs with a good blood supply are biopsied or blood-thinning medication is taken.

It is also possible that neighbouring organs or structures are injured. The risk can be minimized by using imaging techniques such as ultrasound or X-rays. Further risks can be wound infections or wound healing disorders.

However, these occur only very rarely. There is currently a discussion whether tumour cells can be carried away by a biopsy and thus metastases can form in the donor channel. However, this is described in the current literature as very unlikely.

Breast biopsy

Due to constant remodelling of the breast tissue in women, there is a permanently increased risk of tissue changes. Most women discover nodular structures on their own breasts in the course of their lives, which require further clarification. In most cases these are benign lumps.

Theoretically, however, a malignant tumour may be present and should be treated as soon as possible. After a suspected diagnosis has been made, a biopsy is taken from the breast tissue. For this purpose a high-speed punch biopsy is usually performed.

The suspicious tissue is punched three times under control with an ultrasound device. This is done at such high speed that the pain is very slight. All that is necessary is a local anaesthetic and a small skin incision.

The risk of bleeding and infection exists, but is very low. With fast punching procedures, there is also always a small risk of spreading tumour cells, which can settle in another place and spread again (metastases). Punch biopsy in the diagnosis of breast tumours is a popular procedure.

Its results can be classified as very meaningful. If at least 3 biopsies are performed, there is a high degree of certainty that a sufficient number of conspicuous cells will be obtained. Benign tissue is detected as such with a high degree of certainty, and the diagnosis of malignant tumours is accurate with a probability of 98%. In many cases, it saves women from rash surgical interventions due to false diagnoses after previous mammograms. Other biopsy methods that can be used on the breast include fine needle biopsy, extirpation, mammotome and other punching techniques.