title: Incidence of complications in outpatient mastectomy with immediate reconstruction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although breast surgery, including mastectomy, is increasingly being performed on an outpatient basis, skepticism remains about the safety of outpatient mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction. Studies have demonstrated a psychologic benefit to outpatient breast surgery in addition to the clear financial benefit. We sought to determine whether or not the postoperative complication rate after outpatient mastectomy with immediate reconstruction is low enough to consider the procedure safe and effective.
  
  
  METHODS
  Charts were retrospectively reviewed for all patients who underwent outpatient mastectomies with immediate breast reconstruction at St Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center between December 2000 and June 2004. The presence or absence of postoperative complications was determined from records during the postoperative period and subsequent office visit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 29 outpatient mastectomies with immediate reconstruction performed on 28 patients (one had independent procedures on each breast), only one procedure (3%) required subsequent admission to the hospital (for bleeding). Other complications included three seromas, two cases of cellulitis requiring antibiotics, and one hematoma. The overall complication rate was 24% (7 of 29), with only 14% (1 of 7) of the complications requiring hospitalization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that outpatient mastectomy with immediate reconstruction is a safe and effective procedure for carefully selected patients. The complication rates for our patient population are similar to those in other published reports on outpatient operations, most notably, those of outpatient mastectomy without immediate reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York, NY 10011, USA.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.forename: Lisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Mohammed I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Quraishi
authors.forename: Avez A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rizvi
authors.forename: Stephanie F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Bernik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000191:economics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000191:economics / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016462:Mammaplasty / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000191:economics; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies