Wide Local Excision of Breast

Wide local excision is performed to remove a cancerous lump while conserving the breast. The operation aims to remove the cancer with a normal cuff of breast tissue. Afterwards you will need to have radiotherapy in order to complete your breast cancer treatment. The operation is quite a minor procedure and can be performed as a day case procedure, However, it is a full anaesthetic and you'll need to be assessed preoperatively for your fitness for general anaesthetic. The operation is performed through a small incision, normally this is placed around the areola but sometimes the surgeon will choose to place the incision over the cancer. Afterwards the breast tissue is brought over to close the defect and you're usually given some local anaesthetic so that you're relatively comfortable afterwards. are relatively few complications after this procedure. We often see bruising but that settles on its own. You may have some problems with wound infection but that's relatively uncommon. I always recommend wearing a supportive bra for at least two weeks after surgery because that helps with bruising and swelling and helps with pain as well. Also I recommend taking up to two weeks off work to recover from this procedure, although some patients do feel very comfortable after a few days and do return to work earlier, depending on the type of work they do.