[Factors limiting outpatient management in breast surgery]

Breast cancer surgery associates interventions of short duration and low morbidity, mostly accessible for outpatient management.

We performed a descriptive, retrospective, monocentric study involving 1735 patients operated between 1st of July 2015 and the 31st of December 2017 of a mammary or axillary lymph node procedure. A comparative study was carried out, involving 2 groups of patients treated either on an outpatient or conventional hospitalization mode, in order to find the main medico-social factors that could constitute barriers to this ambulatory modality.

In total, 992 patients were treated in outpatient surgery and 743 in conventional surgery. The mean age of the ambulatory group was 56.9 years (±11.2), versus 65.9 years (±13.5) in the conventional hospitalization group. Thirteen stays (1.3%) had to be converted into conventional hospitalization. The main factors limiting outpatient management are age≥70 years, BMI≥25, isolation of the patient, total mastectomy, and drainage.

Because of social, medical or psychological constraints, the rate of outpatient breast surgery remains in our practice, stable in recent years at 56%. Some ways of improvement can be envisaged, but it is likely that this rate will only increase in a very gradual manner in the years to come.