The insertion of prostheses at mastectomy for carcinoma of the breast-a preliminary report

There has been a move away from radical surgery for carcinoma of the breast to more conservative measures. However, even simple mastectomy causes considerable mutilation and is psychologically very upsetting for most patients. This has led to attempts at reconstruction of the breast and more recently to prostheses being inserted at the time of mastectomy (1). The early results of this procedure in 30 patients—the total experience of a general surgeon—are reported in this paper.