A biopsy is a brief and relatively minor surgical procedure during which a doctor takes a small sample of nerves, skin, muscle, or other tissues to evaluate under the microscope. These biopsies are generally performed in the doctor’s office as an outpatient procedure. Your care team may apply a local anesthetic to numb the area.

Nerve biopsy
A nerve biopsy may help identify damage to the covering of the nerve, called the myelin sheath, or to certain cellular components of a nerve.

Skin biopsy
A skin biopsy is helpful to distinguish certain disorders that might affect the small nerve fibers that power the ability to feel heat, cold, and touch.

Muscle biopsy
A muscle or tissue biopsy can help diagnose certain diseases like sarcoidosis or amyloidosis that result in neuropathy.

We use the least invasive biopsy procedure possible, minimizing discomfort while still obtaining enough cells to make a diagnosis. 

Pathology: Analyzing biopsy samples

After you have a biopsy, your nurse sends your tissue samples to our pathologists for review. A pathologist is a medical doctor who specializes in reviewing and evaluating lab tests, cells, and tissues to diagnose disease. 

All these details help form an accurate diagnosis, which is vital to your treatment plan. Your care team takes the time to do a thorough evaluation from the start, so that your treatment will be more effective. 

Tissue bank

Our doctors and researchers work to thoroughly understand the true diversity of neuropathy and identify the abnormalities that can play a role in the condition. That’s why it’s critical that our doctors have access to tissue samples to plan for each patient’s care.

At Stanford, we store tissue samples, so we can use them for research, using the following process:

1. After we take a biopsy (tiny sample of tissue), we ask you if you would like to give it to the tissue bank.
   
2. The tissue first goes to the laboratory, where the pathologist samples it.
   
3. If you approve, the tissue then goes to research specialists. These doctors work with our clinicians (doctors involved in patient care) to identify new triggers for neuropathy  and possible treatments.
   
4. The data is made anonymous and is not available to you after donation, because we use it for research and not for clinical use in making treatment decisions. 
   

Our tissue bank provides our doctors and other researchers with a variety of different types of nerve, skin, or muscle cells to study. As we work on new methods and tools for diagnosing and treating neuropathy, our goal is to move these findings from the lab into patient care.

Stanford Health Library

For confidential help with your health care questions, contact the Stanford Health Library. Professional medical librarians and trained volunteers can help you access journals, books, e-books, databases, and videos to learn more about medical conditions, treatment options, and related issues.