Cavity Shave Margins in Breast Conservative Surgery a Strategy to Reduce Positive Margins and Surgical Time.

Background: Resection of additional tissue circumferentially around the cavity left by lumpectomy (cavity shave) was suggested to reduce rates of positive margins and re-excision. Methods: A single center retrospective study which analyzed margins status, re-excision, and surgical time in patients who underwent breast conserving surgery and cavity shave or intraoperative evaluation of resection margins. Results: Between 2021 and 2023, 594 patients were enrolled in the study. In patients subjected to cavity shave, a significant reduction in positive, focally positive, or closer margins was reported 8.9% vs. 18.5% (p = 0.003). No difference was reported in terms of surgical re-excision (p < 0.846) (5% vs. 5.5%). Surgical time was lower in patients subjected to cavity shave (<0.001). The multivariate analysis intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph node OR 1.816 and cavity shave OR 2.909 were predictive factors for a shorter surgical time. Excluding patients subjected to intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph node and patients with ductal carcinoma in situ, patients that underwent the cavity shave presented a reduced surgical time (67.9 + 3.8 min vs. 81.6 + 2.8 min) (p = 0.006). Conclusions: Cavity shaving after lumpectomy reduced the rate of positive margins and it was associated with a significant reduction in surgical time compared to intraoperative evaluation of resection margins.

Image-guided techniques for localization of pulmonary nodules during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy.

In the modern era when screening and early surveillance of pulmonary nodules are increasing in importance, the management of the pulmonary nodule represents a different challenge to thoracic surgeons. The difficulty lies in the merging of sound surgical and oncological principles with more minimally invasive and appropriate lung-sparing surgery. The success rates of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) resection for smaller as well as subsolid nodules have increased as a result of radiologists' preoperative localization tools. Fast tracking in thoracic surgery is promoted by proper postoperative care for patients having lobectomies in combination with the VATS technique. Image-guided surgery refers to the application of a real-time correlation of the surgical field to preoperative imaging data collection that reflects the precise placement of a chosen surgical instrument in the adjacent anatomic structures. Among the cross-sectional digital imaging techniques the most widely utilized imaging modalities for image-guided therapy are computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, surgical navigation devices, tracking tools, integration software, ultrasound, and angiography are used to support these procedures. For people who are thinking about implementing or optimizing a nodule localization program in view of workflow patterns, surgeon preferences, and institutional resources in a certain facility, this review provides in-depth, unbiased evaluation and offers useful information.