Wire Localization Compared to Radioactive Seed Localization for Lumpectomies: Mean Surgical Time Comparison.

Objectives: In patients with non-palpable breast cancer, surgical tumor localization has been achieved by wire localization (WL). Wire localization has been replaced by I-125 radioactive seed localization (RSL). The objective of this study is to compare mean surgical times when using wire localization versus using I-125 seed localization.

Methods: Patients from NorthShore University HealthSystem who had RSL or WL before having a lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy (SNB) or sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) due to non-palpable breast tumors were analyzed. Sample size was selected based on having a lumpectomy from one specific surgeon. Surgical times for all WL were obtained between the year of 2014-2015, n=31, while surgical times for all RSL were obtained between the year of 2015-2016, n=31. The surgical times collected were recorded from cut to close. An independent-sample t-test was used to compare the means of surgical times when using WL and when using RSL.

Results: An independent-sample t-test showed that there was a statistically significant difference between surgical times when using WL (M=56, SD=17) and surgical times when using RSL (M=47.6, SD=14.6), p = 0.039. Mean procedure time when using RSL was 8.52 minutes shorter than mean procedure time when using WL.

Conclusion: RSL is a good alternative for the WL. One benefit is a significantly lower mean surgical time when using RSL compared to WL. Additional research with a larger sample size could be conducted to further confirm the results of this study.