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Endoscopic Video-Assisted Breast Surgery: Procedures and Short-Term Results

Koji Yamashita¹ and Kazuo Shimizu²

¹Department of Surgery, Musashikosugi Hospital, Nippon Medical School
²Division of Endocrinology, Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School

Background: We devised a new endoscopic operation for breast diseases. We report the aesthetic and treatment results of this procedure.
Methods: A 2.5-cm axillary skin incision was made for a single approaching port, and a working space was created by retraction. Under video assistance, we resected the mammary gland partially or totally, and in the case of malignant diseases we also performed a sentinel lymph node biopsy and dissected axillary lymph nodes (levels I and II).
Results: From December 2001 through April 2005, we performed endoscopic video-assisted breast surgery (VABS) in 100 patients with breast diseases. The diseases were benign in 18 patients and malignant in 82 patients. Of the malignant diseases, 80 underwent breast-conserving surgery and 2 underwent skin-sparing mastectomy. There was no significant difference in operation time, blood loss, or blood examinations related with the acute phase reaction between VABS and conventional breast-conserving procedures. All surgical margins were negative on examination of permanent histological preparations. The wounds healed without noticeable scarring. The original shapes of the breast were preserved. All patients expressed their great satisfaction with VABS.
Conclusions: VABS can be considered as a surgical option and can provide aesthetic advantages for patients with breast disease.

J Nippon Med Sch 2006; 73: 193-202

Keywords
endoscopic surgery, breast-conserving therapy, breast reconstruction, cosmetic outcome, breast cancer

Correspondence to
Koji Yamashita, MD, Department of Surgery, Musashikosugi Hospital, Nippon Medical School, 1-396 Kosugi-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan
yamasita@nms.ac.jp

Received, March 20, 2006.
Accepted, May 31, 2006.