THE CIRCULATION IN THE NIPPLE-AREOLA COMPLEX FOLLOWING SUBCUTANEOUS MASTECTOMY IN BREAST-CANCER

To evaluate the decrease in circulation in the nipple-areola complex after subcutaneous mastectomy and immediate implantation of a submuscular prosthesis, the blood flow was studied by both fluorescein flowmetry and laser Doppler flowmetry in 24 patients with invasive breast cancer. In 14 patients a lazy-S-shaped horizontal lateral incision was used, and 10 underwent a subcutaneous reduction mammaplasty. After subcutaneous mastectomy with a lazy-S incision there was no significant decrease in blood flow in the nipple-areola complex compared with that in the untreated contralateral breast. In the breasts in which reduction mammaplasty had been done, the blood flow was reduced by 74% as measured by fluorescein (p < 0.01), and 70% by laser Doppler flowmetry (p < 0.05), compared with the contralateral breast. Five patients had partial or complete epidermal, and one patient had total dermal, necrosis of the complex, but there was no deep necrosis. No fluorescence was seen within the areas in which necrosis later developed in any of these six cases. The laser Doppler signal in the corresponding areas, however, was not reduced. The results show that the circulation in the nipple-areola complex is reduced more after subcutaneous reduction mammaplasty than after subcutaneous mastectomy with a lazy-S incision.