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Published:
Dec 19, 2022Keywords:
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Main Article Content
“Glove-shield” mastectomy for fungating breast cancer
Abstract
Background - Late presentation is the norm for breast cancer cases in many parts of the developing world. Consequently, some of these lesions are fungating at the time of presentation for medical treatment. The intraoperative handling of these ulcerated tumours could be messy and daunting to the surgeon if no barrier measures are provided.
Objective - To describe the use of “glove-shield” as the improvisation we found consistently useful in isolating and concealing fungating breast wounds intraoperatively. This barrier mitigates the peculiar challenges faced by the surgeon during the palliative resection of ulcerated breast malignancies.
Methodology - A retrospective study of 7 consecutive histologically confirmed cases of fungating breast cancer who underwent palliative mastectomy at a mission hospital over a three-year period (2015 – 2018). Intraoperatively, routine skin preparation and draping were performed before the ulcerated tumour was enclosed within a stretched sterile latex glove to create what we termed “glove-shield” which completely concealed the ulcerated surface.
Results - All 7 patients were females. Their ages ranged between 29 years and 56 years. The “glove-shield” was used to achieve concealment of the ulcerated tumour surface in these patients. Mean duration of post operative hospital stay was 22 days. No perioperative mortality was recorded.
Conclusion - Late cases of breast cancer may present as fungating lesions. The “glove-shield” is an intra-operative barrier which mitigates the peculiar challenges posed by fungating breast cancers to the attending surgeon during palliative (toilet) mastectomy.
