Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy with 7-gauge, 8-gauge, 9-gauge, 10-gauge, and 11-gauge needles: how many specimens are necessary?:

BackgroundPublished national and international guidelines and consensus meetings on the use of vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB) give different recommendations regarding the required numbers of tissue specimens depending on needle size and imaging method.PurposeTo evaluate the weights of specimens obtained with different VAB needles to facilitate the translation of the required number of specimens between different breast biopsy systems and needle sizes, respectively.Material and MethodsFive different VAB systems and seven different needle sizes were used: Mammotome® (11-gauge (G), 8-G), Vacora® (10-G), ATEC Sapphire™ (9-G), 8-G Mammotome® Revolve™, and EnCor Enspire® (10-G, 7-G). We took 24 (11-G) or 20 (7–10-G) tissue cores from a turkey breast phantom. The mean weight of a single tissue core was calculated for each needle size. A matrix, which allows the translation of the required number of tissue cores for different needle sizes, was generated. Results were compared to the true cumulative tissue weights o...