Patent ID: 8197419

Claim:
A biopsy device for the percutaneous removal of a specimen from a tissue mass, the biopsy device comprising: a housing having a proximal end and a distal end; a needle assembly supported by the housing and comprising a cannula and a stylet received within the cannula for relative movement with respect to the cannula; a firing assembly carried by the housing and operably coupled to the needle assembly, wherein the firing assembly is configured to relatively move the stylet and cannula to obtain a specimen; a sample size control assembly for selecting a specimen size to be collected and configured to control an amount of movement of at least one of the stylet and cannula relative to the housing; and a removable tip protector extending over a distal tip of the needle assembly and coupled to the sample size control assembly such that movement of the tip protector relative to the stationary housing actuates the sample size control assembly to select the specimen size.