What are the different types of biopsies?

[sameeralord]

Hello everyone,

I did an internet search on these terms, but I want to make sure if I understood this properly. These are the biopsies I know

1. FNAC: You get a needle and aspirate cells

2. True cut (core) biopsy: You get a bigger needle and aspirate tissue rather than cells.

3. Incisional biopsy: You take a piece of the tissue of interest. Eg if there is an ulcer, you take a wedge shape part of it for histopathology.

4. Excisional biopsy: You take the whole tissue of interest. Eg removing whole lobe of thyroid, to look for follicular carcinoma.

Questions

1. Did I understand these terms properly, my biggest confusion is incisional and excisional biopsy, did I get that right?

2.. Are there any other biopsy types I don't know of.

Thank you so much :)

 

[jedishrfu]

This article goes into more detail about the differences:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-an-incision-and-an-excision.htm#didyouknowout

Basically you need to do an incision to get at internal organs and tissue and then you can do an excision to remove the diseased tissue or organ.

 

[sameeralord]

Thanks for the reply. But I think that is the general definition of an incision and excision, and not refer to biopsies in particular.I found some useful info on another site. Posting here for my and others future reference.

What are incisional and excisional biopsies?

• An incisional biopsy is a procedure in which a small area of tissue is taken to identify the composition (or make-up) of a lesion or abnormality. An excisional biopsy is a more involved procedure where the entire abnormality or area of interest is removed.
• To further clarify this, there are four options for obtaining a tissue sample.
  • A fine needle aspiration is the simplest, least invasive test and uses the smallest needle to simply remove cells from the abnormality. This is not always adequate to obtain a diagnosis, depending on the area to be biopsied.
  • A core needle biopsy removes not only cells, but also a small amount of the surrounding tissue. This provides additional information to assist in the identification of the lesion.
  • An incisional biopsy takes out even more surrounding tissue. It takes out some of the abnormality, but not all. The doctor will slice into the lesion and remove only a portion of it. If the lesion is found to be cancerous, further surgery may be needed to remove the whole abnormality.
  • An excisional biopsy generally removes the entire area in question.
• If the lesion of interest is large, an incisional biopsy may be performed to make sure the cosmetic outcome following the procedure is suitable. Alternatively, if the abnormality is small, an excisional biopsy may be performed. Ultimately, your doctor will decide what is most appropriate for you based on the location and size of the lesion and the suspected diagnosis.
• While a core needle biopsy can be performed on most parts of the body, incisional and excisional biopsies are most often used for lesions involving the breast, skin, muscles, and lymph nodes.