June 22, 2015 – Cavity Shaving

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Anchor lead: A technique called cavity shaving can help avoid repeat breast surgeries, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Removal of breast tumors followed by taking just a bit more tissue from the cavity created when the tumor is removed can reduce the rate at which women must return to the OR dramatically, a recent study reports.  David Euhus, director of breast surgery at Johns Hopkins, already employs this technique.

Euhus:  My own personal re-excision rate dropped from something like 27% to 12% making this transition to shaving all of the margins.  So to me that’s a good simple technique a surgeon can use to increase the probability of getting clear margins with one operation. My goal is to preserve the shape of the breast and the size of the breast relative to the other breast.  We call that preserving contour and symmetry, and that’s one of the prime goals of breast surgery.   :32

Euhus says dyes can be used to further assist the surgeon precisely orient tumor location if reoperation is required.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.