Mastectomy
- During a mastectomy, a surgeon removes tissue from one or both breasts.
- The motive is usually to remove breast cancer, or prevent the development or spread of it.
Why might you need a mastectomy surgery?
A mastectomy is done as part of treatment for breast cancer. Your doctor will likely advise you to have a mastectomy if:
- The tumor is large
- Using radiation therapy is not advised
- The tumor involves more than 1 area of your breast
- The size of the breast may also help determine the kind of mastectomy that is done.
Types of Mastectomy Surgery
- Simple (or total) mastectomy
- Modified radical mastectomy
- Skin-sparing mastectomy
- Radical mastectomy
- Nipple-sparing mastectomy
- Double mastectomy
Mastectomy Surgery Procedure Steps
In this procedure, the surgeon removes the entire breast, including the nipple, fascia (covering) of the main chest muscle, areola, and skin.
A few underarm lymph nodes might be removed as part of a sentinel lymph node biopsy depending on the situation.
The patient, if she is hospitalized, can go home the next day.
For those with early-stage breast cancer, Breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy), would be another option in which only the tumor is removed from the breast.
