In most cases, biopsies are outpatient procedures, so you won't need to stay in hospital overnight. But occasionally some types of biopsy, such as those where a tissue sample needs to be taken from an internal organ, may require a general anaesthetic.
If you have no problems after the procedure, you can go home and rest for the day. Have a responsible adult take you home (do not drive yourself). If you live out of town, it's a good idea for you to stay somewhere overnight within 1 hour of an emergency care hospital.
These procedures are usually fairly quick and might take 15 to 30 minutes to perform, depending on the part of the body being biopsied. Typically, the biopsy sample is then saved in a special type of preservative and sent to the pathology lab for processing.
Immediately after the biopsy
Generally, you can expect after a biopsy: Some pain around the biopsy site. This should resolve, or at least ease over the next two or three days. Your doctor will prescribe appropriate pain relieving medication.
After The Procedure:
If you are having your procedure done as an outpatient: you will stay in the radiology department for one to four hours after the procedure is completed. The Radiology team will watch over you to make sure that you are all right. You will go home after the observation period.
In most cases, biopsies are outpatient procedures, so you won't need to stay in hospital overnight.
Some biopsies can be done in a healthcare provider's office, while others need to be done in a hospital setting. In addition, some biopsies can be done with a local anesthetic to numb just the local area involved. Others may need sedation or even full anesthesia that puts you completely asleep during the procedure.
While a biopsy may sound scary, it's important to remember that most are entirely pain-free and low-risk procedures. Depending on your situation, a piece of skin, tissue, organ, or suspected tumor will be surgically removed and sent to a lab for testing.
After your biopsy
You might be able to go back to normal activities as soon as the test is over. Or you may need to rest at home for some time or stay in the hospital to begin your recovery. If your anesthesia includes a sedative, you need someone to drive you home afterwards.
The biopsy site may feel sore for several days. You may have a bruise on the site. It can help to walk, take pain medicine, and put ice packs on the site. You will probably be able to return to work and your usual activities the day after the procedure.
You may receive local anesthetics to numb the area of the biopsy. Some surgical biopsy procedures require general anesthetics to put you in a sleep-like state. You might need to stay in the hospital after the procedure.
An office-based procedure is a minor surgery, such as a biopsy, that is done an office setting on an outpatient basis, usually with some level of anesthesia.
Biopsies may be done under local or general anesthesia. For local anesthesia, medicine is injected to numb your breast. You will be awake, but feel no pain. For general anesthesia, you will be given medicine to put you into a deep sleep during the biopsy.
An image-guided biopsy is required when an abnormality is detected on a mammogram and/or ultrasound scan. However, 90% of the biopsies are negative (Health Promotion Board, 2012), i.e. no cancer is found. These procedures are done under local anesthesia and as a day-surgery procedure in an outpatient setting.
During an excisional biopsy, the doctor removes an entire lump or an entire area of abnormal skin, including a portion of normal skin. Stitches are generally used to close the biopsy site after this procedure.
After the tissue sample is taken, it will be examined under a microscope to help identify the nature of the problem. This often means that a definite diagnosis can be made.
The most common types include: (1) incisional biopsy, in which only a sample of tissue is removed; (2) excisional biopsy, in which an entire lump or suspicious area is removed; and (3) needle biopsy, in which a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle.
All tissue that is removed is sent to a laboratory, where a pathologist will examine it under a microscope. The results will be available in about a week. If all the cancer and a margin of healthy tissue are removed during the biopsy, this may be the only treatment you need.
Suspicious mammographic findings may require a biopsy for diagnosis. More than 1 million women have breast biopsies each year in the United States. About 20 percent of these biopsies yield a diagnosis of breast cancer. Open surgical biopsy removes suspicious tissue through a surgical incision.
Generally, after a patient receives positive melanoma results, his or her doctors will need to proceed with staging the malignancy— which essentially means determining the extent of the cancer—and developing a treatment plan based on how far the cancer has progressed.
If you have a biopsy resulting in a cancer diagnosis, the pathology report will help you and your doctor talk about the next steps. You will likely be referred to a breast cancer specialist, and you may need more scans, lab tests, or surgery.
The time it takes to get your results back also depends on if the laboratory is on-site or if the sample needs to be sent out for analysis. For most biopsy procedures, results are generally available within a few days to one week to 10 days.
After most fine needle aspiration biopsy procedures, you can drive yourself home and go back to your normal activities right away. Sometimes, the biopsy site may feel sore.
A small amount of anesthetic numbs the skin, allowing the procedure to be almost painless. At most a biopsy feels like a slight pinch as the anesthetic is being injected. You shouldn't feel any sensation as the tissue is removed.