Lymph nodes are small organs located in different parts of your body. They are found near internal organs such as the armpits, the groin, neck, stomach, intestines, and lungs. Lymph nodes work with your immune system to detect and fight off infections. A lymph node may swell in response to an infection somewhere in your body. Swollen lymph nodes can appear as a lump underneath your skin.
During a routine medical exam, your doctor may find enlarged or swollen lymph nodes. Swollen lymph nodes that result from minor infections or insect bites typically don’t require medical attention. However, If your lymph nodes remain enlarged, your doctor may order a lymph node biopsy to look for evidence of an immune disorder, chronic infection, cancer, or a malignancy.
Types of Lymph Node Biopsies
A lymph node biopsy is an outpatient procedure that can take place at a hospital, in your doctor’s office, or in other medical facilities. A doctor can remove the entire lymph node or take a tissue sample from the swollen lymph node. Once the doctor removes the sample, they send it to a pathologist, who examines the lymph node or tissue sample under a microscope.
There are three ways to perform a lymph node biopsy.
Needle Biopsy
A needle biopsy takes about 10 to 15 minutes. At the doctor’s office, your doctor will clean the biopsy site and apply numbing medication to the receptive area. Then, your doctor will insert a fine needle into your lymph node and remove a small sample of cells. They’ll then remove the needle and put a bandage on the site.
Open Biopsy
This procedure removes more than the needle biopsy and can take up to 30 – 45 minutes to complete. The open biopsy takes either a portion of your lymph node or the entire lymph node. Local anesthesia or general anesthesia is used during the procedure.
To perform the procedure, your physician will do the following:
- make a small incision
- remove the lymph node
- suture the biopsy site
- apply a bandage
Minimal pain is experienced after an open biopsy, and your doctor may recommend over-the-counter pain medications. It usually takes about two weeks for the incision to heal. Your physician may recommend avoiding strenuous activities and exercise while your incision heals.
Sentinel Biopsy
If you have cancer, your oncologist may perform a sentinel biopsy to determine where your cancer has metastasized or spread to other organs in the body. During this procedure, a blue dye or tracer is injected near the cancer site, which travels to the closest lymph node. Your physician will then remove this lymph node and check it for cancerous cells.
Lymph node biopsy is done to:
- Check the cause of swollen lymph nodes that do not return to normal size on their own.
- Check evidence of a chronic infection.
- Check to see if a known cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. This is called staging and is done to plan cancer treatment.
- Remove cancer.
- Check evidence of an immune disorder.
Before scheduling your lymph node biopsy, it is very important to tell your doctor about any medications that you’re taking. This includes non-prescription medications such as aspirin or other blood thinners and supplements. Tell your doctor if you’re pregnant, and tell them about any medication allergies, latex allergies, or bleeding disorders.
Because a lymph node biopsy is a surgical procedure, stop taking prescription and non-prescription blood thinners at least five days before your scheduled procedure. Don’t eat or drink several hours before your scheduled biopsy.
There are risks involved with any type of surgical procedure. Notable risks from a lymph node biopsy include:
- tenderness around the biopsy site
- infection
- bleeding
- numbness caused by incidental nerve damage
Infection is relatively rare and can be treated with antibiotics. Numbness can occur if the biopsy is in close proximity to nerves. Any numbness normally disappears within a couple of months.
A lymph node biopsy removes lymph node tissue to be looked at under a microscope for signs of infection or a disease, such as cancer. Test results from a lymph node biopsy are usually available within a few days. Finding some types of infections may take longer.
The lymph node sample is usually treated with special dyes (stains) that color the cells and make problems more visible.
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