PUNTA GORDA, FL (June 13, 2012) - Charlotte Regional Medical Center’s Breast Health Center has expanded its health and wellness services available to women with the addition of Digital Stereotactic Breast Biopsies. Stereotactic breast biopsies represent an accurate and precise sampling of tissue without surgery from a suspected abnormality found on a mammogram. Since most women with an abnormal mammogram do not have breast cancer but rather one of several benign breast conditions, stereotactic breast biopsy spares most women the discomfort and scarring associated with a surgical breast biopsy and allows them to immediately resume normal activities.
A stereotactic breast biopsy is an image-guided biopsy that uses a special computer to guide a needle to an abnormality seen on a digital x-ray. Stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy is a simple procedure that is less invasive than surgical biopsy, leaves little or no scarring, collects multiple tissue samples during one needle insertion, and is quickly performed.
With stereo imaging, two-dimensional digital images of your breast are taken from two different angles. The computer uses the data from each image and calculates the three-dimensional location coordinates of your breast abnormality. This precise information allows your doctor or radiologist to accurately sample tissue for diagnosis. A large percentage of these abnormalities are benign and present no health risks.
Patient benefits include:
Microcalcified sites can be an important early warning sign of malignancy in the mammary glands. Some 80% of these calcium accumulations are benign (non-cancerous). Siemen’s MammoTest digital prone table and Suros’ Eviva breast biopsy system from Hologic are used for this procedure and have been designed to make this procedure as comfortable as possible while producing superior clinical results.
For more information, call Charlotte Regional’s Breast Health Center at (941) 637-2414.
