Radical Mastectomy

Radical mastectomy is a surgical procedure in which the breast, underlying chest muscle (including pectoralis major and pectoralis minor), and lymph nodes of the axilla are removed as a treatment for breast cancer.

It was developed and first performed by William Stewart Halsted in 1882. From about 1895 to the mid-1970s about 90% of the women being treated for breast cancer in the US underwent the Halsted radical mastectomy. This is a very morbid disfiguring surgery and is no longer performed except in extreme cases. Prior to 1975, if a woman had a lump in her breast, and the lump proved to be malignant, a radical mastectomy was performed immediately, in the belief that it was necessary to prevent the further spread of the cancer. If the lymph nodes tested benign, the surgery was considered successful. The operation was very stressful for women, because, in many cases, they would go under anesthesia not knowing whether a suspicious lump was malignant or not and wake up to find that a radical mastectomy had been performed.

Today, there are three main categories of mastectomy:

  1. total (simple) mastectomy,
  2. modified radical mastectomy,
  3. partial mastectomy.
Operations/surgeries and other procedures of the breast (ICD-9-CM V3 85, ICD-10-PCS 0H)
Breast surgery
  • Breast-conserving surgery
    • Lumpectomy
  • Mastectomy
    • Radical mastectomy
  • Mammoplasty
    • Breast implant
    • Breast reduction plasty
  • Mastopexy
  • Breast reconstruction
  • Breast biopsy
    • Fine-needle aspiration
Medical imaging
  • X-ray
    • Mammography
    • Xeromammography
  • MRI
    • Breast MRI
  • Ultrasound
    • Breast ultrasound
  • Scintimammography
  • Thermography
    • Breast thermography
  • Positron emission mammography
Other
  • Breast self-examination

M: BRE

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Famous quotes containing the word radical:

    “To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.”
    —Emma Goldman (1869–1940)