BENIGN BREAST SURGERY - IS THERE A NEED FOR OUTPATIENT FOLLOW-UP

The majority of patients referred to a breast clinic will have benign disease (BED) and, after appropriate assessment, most can be reassured and discharged. However, some patients will require excision biopsy t o confirm the diagnosis. We have performed a prospective study to dete rmine whether routine outpatient follow-up of these patients can be sa fely omitted. A series of 100 consecutive patients undergoing breast b iospy for disease, assessed as benign in outpatients, were studied. Be fore discharge each was given an information sheet outlining their pos toperative recovery and advised to see their general practitioner (GP) between the 7th and 10th postoperative day for wound check, suture re moval and histology. Of the 100 women in the study group, 94 had benig n histology. At the postoperative visit to the GP a full discharge sum mary including histology was available for 88 patients. In six patient s there was a delay in discharge summary generation. Malignant or prem alignant disease was found in six patients. All were safely identified and recalled for counselling and further treatment as appropriate. We believe that the routine follow-up of patients undergoing benign brea st surgery can safely be avoided if there is a satisfactory protocol w hich is understood by both the patients and GPs.