BREAST RECONSTRUCTION - PAST ACHIEVEMENTS, CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE GOALS

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumour in women, and more t han 5000 new cases are discovered each year in Sweden, this means that one woman in nine will be treated for breast cancer during her lifeti me. For unknown reasons, the incidence increases by 1% each year. Part ial mastectomy is the most common surgical treatment today, but a larg e number of women undergo mastectomy-that is, excision of all breast t issue including the nipple-areola complex with or without an axillary biopsy. Radical mastectomy-that is the Halsted mastectomy with excisio n of the pectoral muscles (51)-is almost never done today, so chest wa ll defects are smaller than in the early days of breast reconstruction . There is, however, still a demand from patients for good, natural-lo oking, and longlasting breast reconstructions, and reconstructive surg eons have to search for perfection both in existing methods and also i n new methods of breast reconstruction. The purpose of this article is to review this complex subject.