title: Preoperative methylene blue staining of galactographically suspicious breast lesions.
abstract: Microdochectomy is the standard treatment of galactographically suspicious breast lesions. Precise preoperative marking of the suspicious duct and intraductal lesions facilitates selective minimal-volume microdochectomy. Methylene blue dye staining fulfills this criterion. A retrospective review of our experience of preoperative methylene blue staining in 30 patients with unilateral spontaneous nonlactiferous single duct nipple discharge operated on during 1986-1995 in the Oulu University Hospital for galactographically suspicious breast lesions. Galactography was successful in 29 out of 30 (93.3%) cases. Preoperative methylene blue staining was attempted in all cases on the day of surgery and it was successful in 22 (73.3%) cases making subsequent selective minimal-volume microdochectomy easy to perform. The failure of methylene blue staining led to quadrantectomy in 4 cases and smaller breast resections in the remaining 4 cases. Preoperative methylene blue dye staining crucially facilitates selective minimal-volume microdochectomy. An interval between primary galactography and later methylene blue staining leads to failures in approximately one quarter of the cases. A higher success rate would necessitate scheduling the microdochectomy on the same day as the primary galactography (and the subsequent methylene blue staining in suspicious cases).
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: A O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Saarela
authors.forename: H O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Kiviniemi
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Rissanen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D004396:Coloring Agents; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008751:Methylene Blue; D008875:Middle Aged; D018300:Papilloma, Intraductal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D008751:Methylene Blue