LOCalizer™

Women & Infants Hospital is the first hospital in the region to use LOCalizer™ to accurately identify the location of non-palpable (cannot be found by touch alone) breast lesions. The LOCalizer tag can be placed in the breast up to 30 days before surgery – this takes place under local anesthesia (the area is numbed) and the tag is inserted with a needle under ultrasound or x-ray guidance. Each tag has a unique identification number to clearly mark the lesion. On the day of surgery, the surgeon then uses the LOCalizer reader to confirm the position and identification of the tag, allowing him to better plan the surgical path and remove the lesion.

Most patients experience less discomfort, less waiting, and the avoidance of the hassle of having to have the mass marked on the day of surgery, when they are already anxious and concerned. There is also the benefit of not having something sticking out of the skin, which often compounds the concern that there is something in the breast that shouldn’t be there and could be a cancer.