Name/Title
Dr Sidney Goldsmith 1969 biopsy needle articleEntry/Object ID
002326Tags
Helen Vandervort, Sidney GoldsmithScope and Content
Needle makes biopsies easy
Oct. 11, 1969 WASHINGTON
A Philadelphia physician offers to lighten the ordeal for those who must undergo the removal of tissue specimens in the diagnosis of disease.
Dr. Sidney Goldsmith was granted patent 3,470,867 this week for a biopsy needle whose use is said to be no more onerous than taking a blood sample, and to require less than a minute.
According to Dr. Goldsmith, biopsy needles so far available may lose or break specimens, requiring repeated insertions. He says his needle, when properly used, always gets an adequate sample, and completely avoids exploratory surgery.
The new needle may be used for both adults and children, and is designed in various sizes for a different tissue or organ--the liver, kidney, breast, lung, prostate gland, thyroid gland, heart, neck, skin and limphatic nodes.
In 95 experimental biopsies on various human tissues and organs, performed with needle, fragmented specimens adequate for diagnosis are reported to have been obtained.
The needle's end is beveled outwardly so as to make a clean cut and to assure that when the specimen is drawn in by suction from the attached syringe it will be compressed and held firmly.
Helen Bull Vandervort