Intraoperative ultrasound for nonpalpable breast lesions - experience and operative time

The essential tools doctors need to diagnose breast cancer tumors at the early stages and with no clinical presentation are screening mammography and ultrasonography. Nonpalpable breast lesions are a current problem nowadays and there are various types of navigation techniques that are utilized in order to achieve cancer cell-free resection margins in the first place. Intraoperative ultrasound has been proven to be a safe and effective way to excise this type of breast tumors.

To study the correlation between the experience we obtained while using intraoperative ultrasound for excision of nonpalpable breast lesions, and the duration of surgery.

Twenty-five women with nonpalpable breast lesions underwent breast-conserving surgery using ultrasound navigation. Nominal and ordinal data were presented using numbers and percentages. Spearman's rank-order correlation was used to assess the effect of experience gained on the duration of surgery.

The tumor distribution was 72% malignant tumors and 28% benign. A 100% identification rate in the effective surgical excisions was reported. In the process of gaining experience using the method, the duration of surgery shortened by 30%. No tumor cells on ink were found in all specimens and there was no need for secondary surgeries.

Our results demonstrate a relatively short learning curve, and we believe that breast surgeons should be helped and encouraged to gather adequate expertise to ensure patient safety and gain confidence.