[Interest of systematic shavings to reduce reoperation in breast-conserving surgery of breast cancer]

Objective: The INCa and HAS have developed quality and safety indicators for care specific to breast cancer. Among these, in the conservative surgery of this cancer includes the reoperation rate: target˂10%, alert>20%. The main objective of our study was to evaluate whether the practice of systematic recuts still called "shaving" would meet the objectives of the indicators.

Methods: Observational, retrospective, single-center study over two years in a regional referral center. Two groups of patients were compared: one with "shaving" and one without (no shaving or oriented shaving).

Results: In total, 381 patients were operated on, including 48 (12.6%) with shaving and 333 (87.4%) without. Revision rates for damaged margins were 18.75% (9/48) in the shaving group which met the quality criterias vs. 23.7% (79/333) which did not satisfy them; P=0.4. Furthermore, the rate of discovery of occult sites on recuts was higher in the shaving group: 22.9% (11/48) vs. 9.9% (33/333); P=0.02. In the shaving group, 10.4% (5/48) of the patients were resected again for damaged margins for the initial cancer vs. 18.6% (62/333) in the group without shaving; P=0.23.

Conclusion: Our study confirms the interest of performing "shaving" to meet the requirements of the INCa and HAS quality criteria. The absence of systematic cross-sectioning leads to the risk of not recognizing the existence of occult sites. However, the discovery of occult cancers does not significantly reduce the rate of repeat surgery.