Many people go home on the same day as their operation. Others are in hospital for about 2 to 7 days. The length of your stay depends on the type of operation you have and your recovery.
Staying overnight in the hospital is not usually necessary but may be recommended in some cases. You also may need to stay overnight if you have an oncoplastic lumpectomy that involves a breast reduction or breast lift, which is more extensive surgery.
Most women can go home the same day after lumpectomy. For a mastectomy, you may go home the same day or stay for 1 or 2 nights, depending on the type of surgery. If you have immediate reconstruction, you will stay longer.
You will probably be able to go back to work or your normal routine in 1 to 3 weeks. It may be longer, depending on the type of work you do and whether you are having radiation or chemotherapy. You may shower 24 to 48 hours after surgery, if your doctor okays it. Pat the incision dry.
For 1 or 2 days after the surgery, you will probably feel tired and have some pain. The skin around the cut (incision) may feel firm, swollen, and tender, and be bruised. Tenderness should go away in about 2 or 3 days, and the bruising within 2 weeks. Firmness and swelling may last for 3 to 6 months.
Typically, a lumpectomy is a short, outpatient procedure. Most patients receive general anesthesia, but care teams may also use an IV with a sedative, or relaxing medication, and a local anesthetic is used to numb the area being operated on. The procedure typically takes about 15 to 40 minutes.
Unlike a mastectomy, which involves removal of all or a large portion of the breast tissue, a lumpectomy is not considered major surgery and women who have a lumpectomy often go home the same day of their procedure.
Lumpectomy is performed under anesthesia; hence, the procedure itself is not painful. After the surgery and recovery from anesthesia, patients may experience pain, which usually resolves in a few days and can be minimized with painkillers prescribed by the doctor.
You don't need to wear a specific post-surgery or mastectomy bra unless you are advised to. If you are not given any advice about bras following surgery, check with your surgeon or breast care nurse what is best to wear.
If you had a lumpectomy, we recommend that you wear a wireless bra 24 hours a day for the first week or two. If you had a mastectomy, it is up to you if you'd like to wear a bra or camisole unless otherwise told by your surgical team. Some bras are more comfortable than others to wear during this time.
If you have a lumpectomy or partial mastectomy with or without a sentinel lymph node biopsy: Avoid any activity that bounces or jostles the breast for two weeks after surgery (i.e.: running, jumping, using the elliptical machine). Perform shoulder range of motion as tolerated, beginning 1-2 days after surgery.
If your wound has skin glue, you may shower the day after your operation. If your incision has steri strips and a bandage, the bandage may be removed two days after surgery so that you can shower. In either case, no baths or soaking of the wound (bath tub, hot tub, whirl pool, ocean) for 2 weeks.
Radiation after Lumpectomy
A course of radiation starts between six and 12 weeks after lumpectomy surgery. Most frequently, we target the entire breast (whole-breast radiation). In some cases, we also treat nearby lymph nodes.
Do I need additional treatment after a lumpectomy? Cancer doctors typically recommend that women under 70 who opt for a lumpectomy also receive radiation therapy to the affected breast. This is to kill any stray breast cancer cells that remain after surgery and to prevent the cancer from coming back.
In general, 3-4 cm is considered to be the safe cutoff for lumpectomy in medium to large breasts.
Most people having a lumpectomy, surgical biopsy or sentinel node biopsy don't need surgical drains. Most patients need to use surgical drains for about two weeks following surgery, or once there's less than 30 cubic centimeters (cc) of drainage in 24 hours.
Your breast may look different after a lumpectomy. You may have a small scar or dimpled skin where the tumor was removed. Or the shape of your breast may change. If you're concerned surgery will affect your breast size or symmetry, talk to your doctor before your lumpectomy.
Don't eat or drink 8 to 12 hours before surgery, especially if you're going to have general anesthesia. Bring someone with you. Besides offering support, another person is needed to drive you home and listen to postoperative instructions because it may take several hours for the effects of the anesthesia to wear off.
Most lumpectomy scars have dissolvable stitches that do not need to be removed. However, if you have stitches that do need to be removed, this is usually done around 7–10 days after your operation by a nurse in your own home, or by a nurse at your local clinic or treatment centre.
Risks / Benefits
It's less invasive than mastectomy, a breast cancer surgery that removes the entire breast. Potential complications of lumpectomy surgery include infection, bruising and swelling (called lymphedema) in your arm or hand closest to the affected breast.
Radiation therapy is painless. You may feel some discomfort from lying in the required position, but this is generally short-lived. After the session, you're free to go about your regular activities. Take any self-care steps at home that your doctor or nurse recommends, such as taking care of your skin.
Women who have tumors less than 2 cm across often undergo lumpectomy. For women with larger tumors, however, there was previously little evidence that breast-conserving surgery offered long-term benefits, according to the team of researchers led by Dr Harry Bartelink of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.
Regardless of whether you choose to have a lumpectomy or mastectomy, the recurrence rate remains at approximately 10 percent in the treated breast and about 0.5 percent per year in the breast that has not been treated. The risk of getting a different cancer is about 2 percent.
With lumpectomy, the breast looks as close as possible to how it did before surgery. Most often, the general shape of the breast and the nipple area are preserved. Lumpectomy is also called breast-conserving surgery, partial mastectomy and wide excision.