What is Mastectomy?
Mastectomy removes the breast as the oncological operation. Depending on the plan, the surgeon may take the breast tissue with an ellipse of skin and the nipple, keep the skin envelope, or, when oncology and anatomy allow, keep the nipple-areola complex as well. The intent is to clear the disease in the breast; it is not a cosmetic procedure, even when reconstruction is discussed in the same week. The axilla is part of the same sitting more often than patients realise. Where nodes look clinically clear, a sentinel lymph node biopsy is the usual staging step. Where nodal disease is already known, an axillary dissection may be planned.
