Skin Sparing Mastectomy

Abstract

Nothing has been as constant in the field of breast cancer treatment as change. The past two decades have witnessed dramatic changes in practical approaches of all forms of breast cancer. These changes have been driven by improvements in technology, improvements in public awareness resulting in earlier stage at diagnosis, and improvements in our understanding of mechanisms of the disease, most importantly, better understanding of disease subsets. The surgical treatment of breast cancer has evolved from radical mastectomy with routine removal of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC) which is considered to be a disfiguring operation associated with considerable psychological trauma for the affected woman with high morbidity, to breast conservative therapy with preservation of the breast and NAC. On the other hand women undergoing breast conserving surgery (BCS) live with constant anxiety of harbouring the residual malignancy within and fear of local recurrence rate at any time of their lives. Research to find a feasible alternative has led to the renewal of interest in skin sparing and nipple areola complex sparing mastectomy (NASM) which entails the removal of the breast tissue while preserving the natural skin envelope as much as possible which helped a lot to get better cosmesis than previous mastectomies.