Day surgery management of early breast cancer: Feasibility and psychological outcomes

BACKGROUND/AIM: Breast cancer treatment represents a substantial amount of health-care costs and has a negative impact on womens' psychological health. Day-Surgery managment (DS) is a favorable alternative to a classic inpatient setting. In our prospective study we evaluated DS-treatment feasibility in terms of patient satisfaction, same-day-discharge rate, surgical-reintervention rate, psychological impact and costs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We operated on 131 early breast cancer patients in DS. Surgical outcomes were evaluated. In 64 DS-treated breast cancer patients, psychological outcomes were analyzed using validated psychometric questionnaires and comparison was made with a corresponding group of women treated as inpatients. RESULTS: The same-day-discharge rate was 95.4%. No patient required readmission. The surgical-reintervention rate was 6.2%. DS-treatment significantly reduced anxiety (p=0.05) and depression (p=0.01) and afforded cost savings of 49%. CONCLUSION: DS-treatment of early breast cancer was feasible, with low reintervention rate, reduced anxiety and depression, high patients' satisfaction and substantial financial savings.