The Breast Center, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital successfully performed surgery on patient N (50 years old), removing a giant breast tumor measuring up to 5cm through a 3mm incision using vacuum aspiration. This not only helps the patient recover quickly but also ensures aesthetics - the top priority when treating cancer for women.
Previously, the patient felt and discovered a tumor in the left breast at home. Feeling concerned, she visited and was performed an ultrasound, aspirated cells for testing at a central hospital, and received the result of a fibroadenoma - a benign tumor commonly found in women, so treatment was not performed.
In December 2023, the patient visited the Breast Center, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital again. Here, the patient was assigned a tissue elastography ultrasound and a mammography to assess the condition. The results showed that the left breast tumor at position 1 o'clock, measuring 5x5 cm, was classified BIRADS 3 (i.e. benign tumor). Next, in order to accurately determine the nature of the tumor, the doctors ordered the patient to perform a core needle biopsy and the result confirmed a fibroadenoma. With this type of tumor, although the benign rate is very high (more than 98%), there is still a small percentage that can be malignant, so the patient will inevitably be worried.
On January 30, 2024, the patient returned with the desire to remove the tumor. With the patient's condition, especially when the tumor is large, doctors usually need to perform open surgery to remove it. However, at the Breast Center, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital, doctors chose a different approach, which is vacuum aspiration under ultrasound guidance.
The patients will be given local anesthesia so that they do not feel pain. Then, the doctors will use an ultrasound machine to determine the exact location of the tumor and insert a biopsy needle under the guidance of the image. This vacuum needle will suck and cut each part of the tumor tissue, gradually removing the entire mass. Finally, a marker will be placed at the location of the removed tumor to monitor the progress later. After the procedure, the entire tumor was removed, the patient had no abnormalities, no bleeding, the incision was only 3mm and there were no signs of infection.
How to achieve optimal treatment results for patients is a problem that doctors at the Breast Center, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital always concern. For female patients, especially older patients like patient N, in addition to ensuring aesthetics after surgery, it is also necessary to limit invasive interventions due to poor recovery ability.
The vacuum aspiration method has many advantages that meet the requirements such as no need for open surgery, limited scarring, reduced recovery time and complications, but is often only used to intervene in small tumors that are not clinically palpable. For large tumors, this method often comes with many challenges because the larger the size, the more time and number of tissue samples need to be aspirated, increasing the risk of bleeding and fluid accumulation after the procedure. The large size of the tumor also makes complete removal more complicated, requiring high techniques and modern equipment to ensure complete aspiration of tumor tissue, without damaging surrounding benign tissue.
The successful use of vacuum aspiration for large tumors is the clearest affirmation of the skills and expertise of doctors at the Breast Center, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital in providing optimal treatment solutions for patients.
