[Local recurrence following surgery for breast cancer and its relation to the primary intervention]

32 cases of local recurrence following curative mastectomy were operated between 1975 and 1984. The primary operation was: radical mastectomy n = 20, simple mastectomy n = 6, lumpectomy with axillary dissection n = 6. The rate of local recurrence amounted to: 4.8% (20 patients out of 416) after radical mastectomy; 6 out of 15 patients after simple mastectomy (2 were N1-cases); 6 out of 15 patients after lumpectomy (one case: N1).

With regard to local recurrence radical mastectomy showed significant better results when compared with less radical operations.