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Published on: May 10, 2021
The effect of intraoperative specimen inking on lumpectomy re-excision rates
Mansher Singh1, Gayatri Singh, Kevin T Hogan
1Department of Surgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA.
Background:
Lumpectomy re-excision to obtain negative margins is common. We compare the effect of two specimen orientation approaches on lumpectomy re-excision rates.
Methods:
All women undergoing lumpectomy for breast cancer by a single surgeon between 03/2007 - 02/2009 were included. Lumpectomies underwent standard inking (SI) after surgery by a pathologist from 03/2007-02/2008 while intraoperative inking (II) with direct surgeon input was done from 03/2008-02/2009. Rates of margin positivity and re-excision were compared between these methods.
Results:
65 patients were evaluated, reflecting SI in 39 and II in 26 cases. Margin positivity rates of 46% [SI] vs. 23% [II] (p = 0.06) and re-excision rates of 38% [SI] vs. 19% [II] were observed. Residual disease at re-excision was found in 27% [SI] vs. 67% [II] of cases.
Conclusions:
Intraoperative inking in this practice offered a simple way to reduce re-excision rates after lumpectomy and affect an improvement in quality of patient care.
