Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures available at Montclair Breast Center
- A very thin needle is used to draw fluid or cells from a lump. Slides are made and sent to the pathologist for evaluation.
- Fine needle aspiration biopsy is often used to differentiate solid from cystic abnormalities in the breast.
- It can be done with or without ultrasound guidance.
If an abnormality is cystic, aspiration biopsy may be therapeutic in completely resolving the cyst. No anesthesia is necessary.
- Ultrasound is used to guide a needle into an abnormality.
- Several cylindrical cores of tissue are removed.
- Pathologists evaluate the tissue and can tell us if the abnormality is cancer or a benign process.
- Core biopsy is done with local anesthesia in the office.
- Injection of radiolabeled dye around the areola on the breast with known cancer.
- The dye is taken up the lymphatic channels in the breast and is carried to the first few lymph nodes that drain the breast in the axilla.
- A gamma probe (pictured to the right) is used to identify the lymph nodes that have taken up the most dye.
- If there is no cancer in the sentinel lymph node, no further lymph nodes are taken.
- If there are cancer cells identified in the sentinel lymph node, then additional axillary lymph nodes are removed (axillary lymph node dissection).
Outpatient, same day surgery procedure.
A small piece of abnormal tissue is removed surgically to aid in diagnosis of breast abnormalities.
Can be done with local anesthesia with or without sedation in our private ambulatory surgical center in our building.
Excisional biopsy is rarely performed as a primary diagnostic procedure as most breast abnormalities are amenable to minimally invasive needle biopsies.
In certain situations, excisional biopsy is required for primary diagnostic purposes for abnormalities that cannot be accessed via minimally invasive needle techniques, e.g., the abnormality is too far back near the chest wall; the breast is too small to accommodate the needle required for biopsy.
Lumpectomy (partial mastectomy, breast conserving surgery, wide local excision of breast cancer)
Removal of a known breast cancer with a rim of normal tissue around it.
Outpatient, same day surgery procedure.
Can be done with local anesthesia with or without sedation in our private ambulatory surgical center in our building.
Breast Conserving surgery done in combination with a reduction procedure.
Combined operation with a plastic surgeon.
The procedure allows larger tumors to be removed with lumpectomy, which would otherwise require mastectomy.
Appropriate candidates for oncoplastic reduction are determined by your breast surgeon and a plastic surgeon.
Removal of the nipple, areola, i.e., the dark part around the nipple, the majority of the breast skin and the breast tissue leaving a smooth flat chest wall.
Usually done under general anesthesia.
In selected patients, it can be done as an outpatient procedure in our private ambulatory surgical center in our building or in the hospital.
Some patients require an overnight hospitalization.
Removal of the nipple, areola, a small amount of breast skin and the breast tissue.
Breast skin is saved for women who desire reconstruction by the plastic surgeon.
Usually done under general anesthesia.
In selected patients, it can be done as an outpatient procedure in our private ambulatory surgical center in our building or in the hospital.
Some patients require an overnight hospitalization depending on the type of reconstruction they choose.
Removal of the breast tissue with conservation of the nipple areolar complex
For highly selected patients, such as women who carry a mutation in BRCA 1 or 2, women with small tumors more than 4 cm away from the nipple.
Usually done under general anesthesia
In selected patients, it can be done as an outpatient procedure in our private ambulatory surgical center in our building or in the hospital
Some patients require an overnight hospitalization depending on the type of reconstruction they choose.
