Technical feasibility and cosmetic advantage of hybrid endoscopy-assisted breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer patients.

Background: We developed a new procedure called hybrid endoscopy-assisted breast-conserving surgery (EBCS), which consists of a combination of plastic surgery and endoscopic surgery techniques. The purpose of this study was retrospectively to analyze the clinical outcome of hybrid EBCS and compare the cosmetic outcomes between hybrid EBCS and conventional breast-conserving surgery (CBCS).

Patients And Methods: We reviewed medical records of patients who had undergone hybrid EBCS (n=73) or CBCS (n=90) between May 2005 and April 2011 and had been followed up in our department until March 2012. The clinical outcomes and cosmetic outcomes of these two groups were compared. The safety of hybrid EBCS was also analyzed by confirming its complications and pathological surgical margin.

Results: In the hybrid EBCS group, operation time was longer by 30-50 minutes. Blood loss was not significantly different between the two groups. The surgical margin of hybrid EBCS was as follows: 1 patient (1.4%) had a positive margin, 4 patients (5.5%) had a margin of <2 mm, in 9 patients (12.3%) the margin was ≥2 mm and <5 mm, and in 59 patients (80.8%) it was ≥5 mm. Seven cases (9.6%) of postoperative complications occurred in 6 hybrid EBCS patients. To date, no local recurrence has been observed in hybrid EBCS patients (postoperative observation period, 18.1±5.6 months). Compared with the CBCS group, the hybrid EBCS group had better cosmetic results, especially with a less noticeable operative scar (P<.01).

Conclusions: Hybrid EBCS can provide sufficient free margin, and its surgical curability is acceptable. Additionally, this method is superior to CBCS in terms of cosmetic outcome.