Breast Surgery

Abstract

Breast surgery is evolving into a specialised area of surgical practice. Preoperative investigations are becoming increasingly sophisticated, as a result of multidisciplinary input from the surgeon, the radiologist, the pathologist, the oncologist, the nurse specialist and nuclear medicine. Better techniques are leading to more targeted procedures, and merging of the roles of clinicians is taking place. As a result, the majority of short stay surgery is for planned therapeutic procedures for benign or malignant breast disease, and diagnostic open breast biopsy is rarely indicated. Today, at least 50% of breast surgery can be carried out in short stay facilities and this figure is likely to rise with the use of targeted axillary procedures. Reconstructive surgery and mastectomy require hospitalisation, but a number of secondary procedures such as implant exchange, capsulotomy, nipple reconstruction and even breast reduction can be carried out effectively on a short stay unit.