What Should Patients Expect After Open Surgical Biopsy?
Open surgical biopsy requires stitches and a longer period of recovery than percutaneous (“through the skin”) breast biopsy procedures (such as fine needle aspiration (FNA), core needle biopsy, or vacuum-assisted biopsy). Usually, at least one full day of recovery is required. The scar from a surgical biopsy is typically small. However, whether or not surgery will change the shape of a woman s breast depends on a number of factors, including: • The size of the breast lesion • The location of the breast lesion • The amount of surrounding breast tissue that is removed in addition to the lesion What are the Advantages and Disadvantages to Open Surgical Biopsy? Surgical biopsy yields the largest breast tissue sample of all the breast biopsy methods, and the accuracy of a diagnosis using the open surgical method is close to 100%, making it the “gold standard” of breast biopsy methods. Nevertheless, while surgical biopsy may be the best choice for some patients, it does have disadvantages, e
