Clinicals 3/16/12

Breast biopsies tend to get tricky if close to the chest wall. In instances such as this the radiologist attempts to use lidocaine to lift the mass away from the chest wall. The risks of biopsing something this close to the chest wall is risk of puncturing the chest wall causing a pneumothorax. The core biopsy needles that they use have a designated "throw" when obtaining a sample so the Radiologist has to remain aware of this as well and try to remain as parallel to the chest wall as possible while still obataining a good sample. Very tricky but the Doctors i work with are amazing!!! =)