US Patent 7896817 Biopsy device with manually rotated sample barrel

A biopsy device and method may be used to obtain a tissue sample, such as a breast tissue biopsy sample. The biopsy device includes an outer cannula having a distal piercing tip, a cutter lumen, and a cutter tube that is rotated by an integral motor and manually translated past a side aperture in the outer cannula to sever a tissue sample. A sample capturing structure (e.g., sample barrel) has a plurality of sample cavities (e.g., radially symmetric, revolver handgun orientation) that are manually aligned one at a time to capture one or more samples.