Surgical use of breast ultrasound

Ultrasound (US) of the breast has been used primarily to characterize palpable and mammographically visualized abnormalities. Breast surgeons increasingly have incorporated the use of ultrasound into their clinical practices. Ultrasound maybe used for diagnostic imaging as well as guiding biopsies, allowing preoperative diagnosis for better intraoperative surgical decision-making. Intraoperative US-guided excisonal biopsy is fast overtaking needle localization breast biopsy in the treatment of nonpalpable lesions of the breast. Ultrasound guidance improves the surgeon's ability to obtain negative margins at the time of the initial surgery and may in the future be used as a guidance tool for delivering minimal invasive therapy.