Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Skin sparing mastectomy and immediate reconstruction for breast cancer: a three to five year follow-up study of post-operative patients looking at cosmetic outcome

Over 100 years ago Halsted described the radical mastectomy for early breast cancer. 1 This involved wide, en bloc removal of the tumour, normal surrounding structures of the chest wall, and contents of the axilla. For 75 years this remained the treatment of choice for women with breast cancer. Most...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Muller, Elsie Maria
Other Authors: Kahn, D
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Surgery 2024
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Over 100 years ago Halsted described the radical mastectomy for early breast cancer. 1 This involved wide, en bloc removal of the tumour, normal surrounding structures of the chest wall, and contents of the axilla. For 75 years this remained the treatment of choice for women with breast cancer. Most tumours could be resected using this approach and local recurrences were rare. However, this radical surgical approach was associated with significant short- and long term morbidity. Removal of the pectoralis muscles resulted in major aesthetic chest wall deformity. Other complications involved impaired range of movement, chronic lymphoedema and poor quality of life. However, the most important weakness of radical mastectomy was its failure to influence long-term survival.