Surgery Soon but the Clip Could not be found...

LilyCh

All,

My wife had the neo-adjuvant chemo done three weeks ago and is scheduled to have the lumpectomy next week. Today during a part of the pre-op, she had the ultrasound to locate the clip which was placed during the biopsy 5 months ago, but the clip could not be found. They decided not to do the mammogram and thought it would not be helpful to locate, either.

How would this impact the surgery? I e-mailed the BS about this, but am still waiting for his reply. Since both the MRI and US (after the chemo) indicated the tumor had been resolved and the clip could not be found now, how are they going to locate the original tumor site during the surgery?

Thanks in advance.

Irony

Hi! I'm not sure if you got any answers from your breast surgeon, but I am an ultrasound tech. My specialty is breast ultrasound. I actually found my own cancer.

Locating the clip under ultrasound can be really challenging. The clip is very small. If the mass is no longer visible, it can make finding the clip really difficult. The clip is best seen under mammography, so I'm not sure why they didn't do the mammo unless the cancer was very lateral or medial and difficult to obtain an image.

If they are doing a lumpectomy, they will usually use mammography to localize the clip before surgery. If she is having a mastectomy, then all the tissue will be looked at.

The tissue that is removed will be sent to radiology while your wife is in surgery to be x-rayed. The clip will show up in the tissue that has been removed

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Marie

AliceBastable

I didn't have a biopsy clip put in because I have a possible metal allergy. My surgeon found the tumor site with no problem.

LilyCh

Irony, thanks so much for your input, you are really the expert!

The breast surgeon today did reply that "Clip not seen on ultrasound. We will have to be creative" (during the surgery). Tomorrow will be the surgery, we are kind of nervous about what "be creative" really means. My wife told me that even during the ultrasound right after the biopsy almost 6 months ago, the doctor could not locate the clip. I was wondering if the clip was even not in place from the very beginning. However, I was told from the MRIs before and after neo-adjuvant chemo, the clip does show up.

The possible reason they did not use mammo is the original tumor site was at one o'clock and close to the chest wall, they even could not image the tumor during the initial diagnosis, that is exactly what you explained

Thanks again

LilyCh

AliceBastable,

My wife had the neo-adjuvant chemo before the upcoming surgery and per the MRI after chemo, the tumor is resolved. That is why they need to locate the original tumor site based on the clip location.