Urinary Catheter-Directed Breast-Conserving Surgery for Incidentally Discovered Breast Cancer After Vacuum-assisted Breast Biopsy (VABB) Therapeutic Excision

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB) offers high accuracy in the diagnosis of breast tumors but makes the location of the original lesion difficult to identify when the subsequent breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is to be carried out. The aim of this study was to describe an effective technique to identify the exact location of the VABB cavity and to make breast-conserving resection more precise. Methods In this study, a balloon urinary catheter was inserted through the biopsy track; thus, the inflated balloon and catheter perfectly reconstructed the VABB cavity and biopsy track. Then breast-conserving resection with the guidance of the catheter was performed. Six patients were enrolled and assessed for their surgical findings, pathological results, surgical margins, and postoperative complications. Results Residual tumors were confirmed in 4 out of 6 patients after VABB. All the patients gained negative margins and underwent successful breast-conserving surgery. None of them required re-excisions. Satisfactory cosmetic results were observed after the catheter-directed BCS. Conclusions The results of this study show the effectiveness of urinary catheter-guided breast-conserving surgery after VABB. The procedure is simple and inexpensive. This new technique enabled precise breast-conserving resection of the targeted lesion and potentially improve successful rate of breast-conserving surgery.