A mastectomy procedure may seem like a scary procedure, as a significant amount of the body will be excised or removed in the process. This process has been performed for at least several decades as an effective treatment for breast cancer and other anomalies of the breast. There are, however, different methods for performing the procedure, including the nipple-sparing mastectomy. This procedure involves the removal of the entirety of a person's breast tissue that, as the name indicates, spares the nipple and sometimes the areola, or the skin immediately surrounding the nipple, as well as a safe amount of skin around that as well. Depending on the type and location of the breast anomaly, your physician may decide that you qualify for this type of procedure.

Most mastectomies simply involve a removal of the entire breast, a process that can be more difficult to endure than the nipple-sparing variety. During the procedure, a surgeon can confirm that a nipple-sparing mastectomy is safe and advisable to perform, in which case the procedure will involve making a large incision along the outer side of the breast, then hollowing out the entire breast. The nipple will remain intact and will not be affected, except internally, as the tissue inside the nipple must be completely removed for the patient's safety. The last thing a patient who has undergone a mastectomy wants or needs is a recurrence of cancer at the nipple after it was spared, so it will be safely hollowed.

Breast reconstruction for a traditional mastectomy will be more involved and will require more healing time than reconstruction for the nipple-sparing mastectomy. Sometimes, reconstruction can even be performed during the mastectomy procedure, before closing the incision in the breast. In a process called simultaneous reconstruction, the artificial breast tissue will be inserted after the affected tissue has been removed, resulting in a single, safe process that can leave you feeling good as new and looking just as good as you did when you were healthy. When a nipple is spared during a mastectomy, one's breast may even look completely unchanged.

But how does one qualify for this procedure? If the nipple sparing mastectomy is faster, easier, and reduces the amount of trauma to the patient, it would seem that most mastectomies would be performed in this manner. The truth, though, is that only a small percentage of those patients who need or request a mastectomy can qualify for the nipple-sparing procedure. Since a mastectomy's purpose is to remove all dangerous tissue before it can cause greater harm to a person's overall health, then most of the time a mastectomy is performed, the nipple must also be removed, as cancers and nodules are often concentrated in this area. Consider the fact that the process for checking one's own breast for anomalies involves making a circular pressing motion from the nipple outward. Most anomalies that are detected by the patient will be found underneath or near the nipple. For this reason, it will usually need to be removed. 

There are, however, a small percentage of patients whose cancers and tumors will be located away from the nipple, deep within the breast only, or are non-aggressive, meaning the anomalous tissue may not have spread at a rate fast enough to warrant removal of the entire breast. If cancers are detected early, this increases a patient's chance of qualifying for a nipple-sparing mastectomy. Every patient's individual health condition, breast, and ability to tolerate surgery will be taken into consideration before a physician can decide on which type of mastectomy to perform. 

Experts want the best for their patients, and hope that as many men and women as possible can qualify for the less invasive, safer procedure requiring less reconstruction that is known as a nipple-sparing mastectomy.