A Novel Technique to Identify the Latissimus Dorsi Muscle During Modified Radical Mastectomy

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in India and worldwide. Surgery is the primary treatment of nonmetastatic breast cancer. Modified radical mastectomy (MRM) is a very important aspect of the surgical training in general surgery and surgical oncology. The lateral limit of the dissection is the latissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. In the early part of the learning curve, many trainees tend to overshoot the border of the LD muscle and enter into the posterior plane. The technique described is a simple anatomical method of identifying the anterior border of the LD during MRM.