Directional vacuum-assisted stereotactic breast biopsy: a 2-year experience

Introduction: Directional vacuum-assisted stereotactic breast biopsy (DVAB), represents an excellent method for obtaining pathological diagnosis, being in many cases an alternative to surgery. Objectives: To present our 2-year experience in DVAB at the University of Chile’s Clinical Hospital. Materials and methods: a descriptive retrospective study of DVAB was conducted in our Hospital from March 2005 to November 2007. Morphology of lesions, BI-RADS classification, pathology reports, complications as well as epidemiological data were recorded. Results: We included 79 patients with 95 lesions. Mean age 55 years. Of the 95 biopsies, 95.7% were microcalcifications. The sensitivity was 92.8% and specificity 100%. The positive predictive value was 100%, while negative PV was 98.7%, with 8% of subestimation and complication rate of 3,1%. Conclusions: Our results confirm the advantages of said procedure in our Center, proving DVAB as highly reliable, with good histological correlation and minimal complications