FNA biopsy for Long Beach patients

Long Beach is about 28 miles from the office, normally 35 minutes to an hour on the I-405 north. Far enough that you want to make the trip once, close enough that there is no reason to make it twice.

The drive replaces the wait, not adds to it. For most Long Beach patients the round trip takes less time than the gap between a referral and the first available hospital radiology slot.

A fine needle aspiration uses a needle thinner than the one used to draw blood. No incision, no stitches, local anesthesia only.

Thyroid

Only 4 to 6 percent of thyroid nodules turn out to be cancer. Ultrasound guided sampling, graded on the Bethesda system, read on site. Thyroid biopsy

Breast

Most breast lumps are benign. If it is a cyst, draining it with the same needle often makes the lump disappear during the visit. Breast biopsy

Lymph nodes

Usually a node is simply doing its job. When it is hard, fixed, or has not gone away, cells answer the question in one appointment. Lymph node biopsy

If your Long Beach physician finds a thyroid nodule, a breast lump or a swollen lymph node, the referral almost always goes to a hospital radiology department. A radiologist takes the sample, and a pathologist you never meet reads it days later.

Two visits, two specialists, two waits

About two weeks of waiting

With Dr. Nadelman

One visit, one specialist, one trip

An answer inside of two days

Plan on about an hour from walking in to walking out, however far you drove to get here.

Dr. Nadelman examines the lump and looks at it on ultrasound first, so she knows exactly what she is sampling.

Local anesthesia, then a few passes with a fine needle. Most people find it easier than a blood draw.

The slides are stained and examined in the office lab while you wait. This is the step that does not exist anywhere else.

Preliminary findings usually within 24 hours, sent to you and to whichever physician you name in Long Beach.