Post Transplant: Needle Aspiration Biopsies

If you find a mass your physician may schedule you for a needle biopsy.  I had four done within the first 16 months following my transplant.  A needle biopsy is done at a hospital under out-patient status.  If you wear loose-fitting clothing and the mass is easily accessible, you shouldn’t have to change.  Samples from the mass are withdrawn by a needle, and an initial analysis is done before you leave.


They will offer to numb the area with Lidocaine if you like, but I’ve never chosen this option, since to me the numbing stick is no different than the needle used to collect the samples.  Also, there are a few things that can mess up the test results, and the addition of the Lidocaine medicine itself, should it infiltrate the sample, is one of those things.  Another is an excess amount of blood in the sample, which can happen if the physician has to take more than two samples to get enough for a count.  They generally will not do more than three withdrawals for that reason, and hope for the best in terms of sample size.



Immediately after the sample withdrawal the physician doing the test will prepare a test slide and look for an average cell count of dysfunctional cells that exceeds the standard.  If he or she doesn’t find that, they’ll tell you it looks like a negative.  Regardless of their results, they’ll forward on their full sample for a larger statistical count which can be reviewed with your referring physician later.



Some blood cancers are difficult to diagnose – like Lymphoma – and even with an initial negative they’ll ask you to continue to watch the site for any changes or growth.  Several of my samples had to go on to more elaborate pathology tests when the first-level ones were inconclusive.

Needle Biopsy –Teri	Type	Rating	Duration
Lidocaine Numbing	None	0	0
Sample Collection	Needle Probe	3	3 min.
Cell Count/Wait Time	Anxiety	7	15 min.
Second collection	Needle Probe	3	3 min.
Cell Count/Wait Time	Anxiety	5	15 min.

Needle Biopsy –	Type	Rating	Duration
Lidocaine Numbing
Sample Collection
Cell Count/Wait Time
Second collection
Cell Count/Wait Time