Page 21 - Florida Sentinel 11-20-20

Health
TYPE: Endoscopic Biopsy
With this, your doctor uses a long, thin tube that has a light and camera at the end called an endoscope. It's rec- ommended when they need to get to an area deep inside your body. For example, it can take samples of tissue from your colon or bladder or a lung.
How An Endoscopic Biopsy Is Done
The procedure might be done at your doctor’s office or as outpatient surgery in a hos- pital. Your doctor will give you medicine to make you sleepy, then they'll put the endoscope through your mouth, rectum, or urinary tract or through a small cut in your skin. The camera will guide them to the tissue to be tested. It’s usually a very safe procedure, but there's a small risk of tissue tears, infection, or bleeding.
TYPE: Excisional or Incisional Biopsy
These procedures are mostly used to test areas that involve skin, breasts, lymph nodes, or muscles. An exci- sional biopsy takes a whole polyp or a large area of skin. An inci- sional biopsy takes a deep but smaller area
of skin. For example, if your doctor thinks you have melanoma, they can take out a whole skin tumor with an excisional biopsy, while an incisional biopsy would take out only part of a tumor.
How Excisional and Incisional Biopsies Are Done
Depending on where the
area is and its size, your doc-
tor will either numb it or give
you medicine to make you
sleepy. Then they'll use a
small, sharp knife to take a
sample of tissue. You may
need stitches afterward.
After the medicine wears off,
you may feel a little pain or
notice a small amount of bleeding. If it hurts badly or bleeds a lot, call your doctor right away.
TYPE: Surgical Biopsy
If your doctor needs to take out a large area of tissue, tumor, lump, or lymph node to be tested, it'll be done in a hospital, and you'll get medi- cine to make you sleep through the procedure. In some cases, your doctor may make only a tiny cut, then use a tube with a camera on the end to be guided to the right area. That type of surgical biopsy is called a laparo- scopic biopsy.
TYPE: Bone Marrow Biopsy
Blood dis-
eases and can-
cers like
lymphoma or
myeloma can
leave signs in
your bone
marrow. Your doctor can use a long needle to take a small sam- ple of bone marrow or bone to be looked at under a micro- scope. They'll put some medi- cine on the area to numb it, but you may feel a little uncomfort- able during the procedure.
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