In the modern era, prostate biopsies are performed under local anaesthetic or sedation, using images of the prostate gained from an ultrasound probe placed up the back passage into the rectum. These images are used to guide the passage of a fine biopsy needle through the perineum (the area of skin between the scrotum and the anus) into the prostate to take the core of tissue. Prostate biopsies may be taken in a saturation fashion - sampling the whole prostate, or in a more targeted fashion based upon the MRI images. Fusion technology, that in real-time overlays the contour of the MRI scans onto the live ultrasound images, may be employed, particularly for smaller targets within the prostate, to improve accuracy.