Where do I go?
Please report to the Same Day Surgery center at Duke Raleigh Hospital. The registration staff will check you in and a nurse from Same Day Surgery will get you ready for your procedure.
What can I expect at my appointment?
The mammography technologist and the radiologist will explain the procedure to you and obtain your consent to perform the exam.
The technologist will need to take a series of additional mammography images to locate the lesion that will be removed during surgery. The radiologist will use these images to pinpoint the lesion.
The radiologist will numb your skin with a numbing agent. You will experience some burning sensations until the area is numb.
The radiologist will place a needle in your breast using the guidance of the mammography images. The technologist will take two pictures to ensure the needle is in the correction position.
Once the lesion is localized, the radiologist will remove the needle, leaving a wire in your breast tissue. Your surgeon will use this wire as a guide to the lesion.
After the wire is placed, your technologist will take several more mammography images to ensure that the wire placement is correct. The wire will be secured and taped down so that you can dress in a gown.
Both the patient and the mammography images will go to the operating room.
Do I need to do anything to prepare?
Please do not eat or drink anything after midnight the night before your exam. Your physician’s office will give you instruction regarding your medicines.
Please bring all prior mammograms and make them available to us at the time of your exam. We will need these to guide the radiologist.
What should I tell the technologist?
You should let the technologist know if you are or may be pregnant. Describe any breast symptoms or problems to the mammography technologist.
We will need to know of any prior surgeries, hormone use, and family history of breast cancer.
How will I get the results?
Your physician will receive pathology results and schedule an appointment for you in their office to discuss the results of your biopsy.
