Assessment of Use of Subcutaneous Mastectomy with Silicon Prostheses as Treatment of Early Breast Cancer
Authors: Elahmady Rania Mohammed , Ahmed Dina Hany , Khalil Ahmed Mohamed , Ali Mohamed Ameera Ashraf 
Published: July 2024

Background

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States. Approximately 268,600 new breast cancer diagnoses and 41,760 cancer- related deaths in the U.S. were estimated for 2019. SSM (skin sparing mastectomy) is defined as a simple or radical surgery with modified minimal incisions that retain the widest possible coverage and sub-cutaneous breast groove but dry the NAC, flaws of previous biopsies and/or scarring caused by diagnostic percutaneous biopsies. Access to the armpit for a possible sentinel-node biopsy or axillary dissection is obtained through the same incision. An additional incision may be necessary to perform the reconstructive procedure (e.g., microsurgical axillary anastomosis).

Objective

To study the risks and benefits of use subcutaneous mastectomy with silicon prosthesis as treatment of early breast cancer: as regards the impact of radiotherapy administration on implant, psychological impact, operative time and post-operative complications including complication of silicon, effect on wound healing.

Patients and Methods

This prospective interventional study was conducted at tertiary care hospital at the general surgery department in Ain Shams University hospitals and Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST) hospital and from November 2021, till July 2022 and performed on total 15 females suffering from stage I-II infiltrating breast carcinomas.

Results

The current study revealed that mean ±SD of age of the studied cases was 46.3±7.4. Regarding tumor site, LOQ was the most frequent (40.0%), followed by UIQ (33.3%), then UOQ (20.0%) and lastly LIQ (6.7%). Concerning T grades, T1 was in (46.7%), while the remaining (53.3%) were T2. Concerning N grades, N0 was in (73.3%), while the remaining (26.7%) were N1. Sentinel lymph nodes done in 73.3% of cases. As regards operative characteristics, Axillary clearance done in less than half of cases (46.7%), while nipple sparing achieved in less than quarter of cases (20.0%). As regards post-mastectomy treatment, majority of cases (86.7%) received hormonal therapy, adjuvant radiotherapy to axilla was (46.7%), chemotherapy (33.3%), while immunotherapy was (6.7%). As regards postoperative side effects, Pain was the most frequent postoperative side effect; detected in (33.3%) of cases, followed by seroma (20.0%), then flap necrosis (13.3%), and the least frequent was hematoma (6.7%). As regards postoperative patients’ satisfaction, mean ±SD of Postoperative patients’ satisfaction was 7.3±1.5 with range 5.0 − 10.0. Near half of the studied cases (46.7%) had 7.0 − 8.0 satisfaction grade.

Conclusion

Skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM) and nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) with immediate subcutaneous silicon implantation are an acceptable and safe method for breast reconstruction. It offers a number of advantages including ease of dissection for surgeons, improved symmetry, and low complication rates. With improvements in surgical techniques in preserving mastectomy skin flap viability, the traditionally higher rates of complications in subcutaneous implants may be outdated. The present study can burden the knowledge and shed some light on future prospective studies with larger sample sizes to evaluate a cost benefit analysis and patient and surgeon assessment of outcomes to directly compare with traditional submuscular single- or 2- stage implant-based reconstruction.