Wide local excision of breast carcinomas: the effect of ultrasound and wire guidance on the Surgical Precision Index

Aim

To determine the effect of ultrasound and wire guidance on the Surgical Precision Index (SPI) for wide local excision (WLE) of breast carcinomas.

Methods

The SPI is calculated from the minimum excision margin being divided by the total specimen weight (sw) to tumour diameter (td) ratio (sw/td). The standard of surgical performance increases with an increase in SPI. A review of histology reports provided SPIs for 97 WLE specimens in 96 patients treated by one surgeon. The mean SPIs for palpable tumours, ultrasound-guided tumours and wire-guided tumours were calculated.

Results

There was a significant difference between palpable tumours and impalpable tumours (Kruskal-Wallis test P = 0.007). There was no significant difference between ultrasound-guided and wire-guided WLEs (Mann-Whitney test P = 0.153).

Conclusion

Palpable tumours have a higher SPI than impalpable tumours. There is no statistically significant difference between the SPI of ultrasound-guided and wire-guided WLEs.

Table 1 SPI by guidance technique