Objective: More than 160,000 women will develop breast cancer in the United States during the next year. Traditionally, their definitive surgery has been performed on an inpatient basis, with postoperative hospital stays ranging from 1 to 7 days.
Design: Retrospective review of cases and results.
Patients: Two hundred twenty-one patients underwent 223 definitive surgical procedures for carcinoma of the breast, entirely on an outpatient basis, between September 1990 and June 1992. Operations included 31 modified radical mastectomies, 101 partial mastectomies with radical axillary node dissections, 11 total mastectomies, 69 partial mastectomies, and 11 radical axillary dissections.
Results: There were no deaths, and no serious complications. No patient required hospitalization for any reason. There were no wound infections. Patient satisfaction was high, and compliance was excellent.
Conclusions: Most operations for carcinoma of the breast can be performed on an outpatient basis, without increasing the risk of complications.