Clinical application of vein visualization apparatus AccuVein^®500 in breast cancer surgery: a case report

AccuVein^® can help visualize superficial veins and is generally used as an auxiliary device to identify patterns of veins that are difficult to locate for collecting blood and securing venous lines. Even when venous patterns are obscure via visual inspection and/or palpation, the clear projection/delineation of superficial veins using this apparatus facilitates safe venous puncture and helps secure venous lines. Therefore, this apparatus is widely used in clinical settings. AccuVein^® can easily visualize not only superficial veins in the limbs but also the ones located throughout the body surface.

We report three cases of 68-year-old, 41-year-old, and 56-year-old Japanese women in whom superficial veins in the breasts were visualized using AccuVein^®, and mastectomy and partial mastectomy were performed. All patients were of Japanese ethnicity. AccuVein^® can enable the examiner to observe superficial veins in the breasts, irrespective of their skills. The examiner can, thus, secure detailed visualization of subcutaneous veins in the breasts. Furthermore, AccuVein^® ensures reproducibility and subjectivity regardless of the examiners' experience. During a mastectomy, the perforating branches of the internal thoracic vein originating from the greater pectoral muscle are identified, ligated, and separated. The preoperative use of AccuVein^® makes it possible to instantaneously identify their position. Visualizing the perforating branches to their root in patients with thin subcutaneous breast fat and their roots' proximity in patients with thick subcutaneous breast fat is possible. While the position and/or range of a breast cancer lesion may sometimes be unclear in ultrasonography, marking subcutaneous mammary veins around the lesion as the benchmark helps identify the lesion position. In this study, we inspected the patterns of subcutaneous mammary veins using AccuVein^®. This manuscript reports the clinical application of this apparatus in breast cancer surgeries.

Understanding the vascular construction of subcutaneous mammary veins using the vein visualization apparatus AccuVein^® may serve as an auxiliary technique for safely and securely identifying breast cancer lesions.