What is a skin sparing mastectomy?

When a woman is diagnosed with a breast cancer, she is usually given options as to how she can be surgically treated for her disease. These options usually include lumpectomy with radiation, mastectomy alone, or mastectomy with plastic surgery reconstruction. If she chooses mastectomy with plastic surgery reconstruction, it is usually preferable to begin the reconstruction at the same time the breast is removed. The reconstruction involves placing either an implant, or tissue from other parts of the body, into the space where the breast is removed. When the surgeon removes the breast in anticipation of immediate reconstruction, he or she tries to leave as much of the skin envelope of the breast in place for the plastic surgeon to fill with the appropriate material. The surgeon thus "scoops" out the breast from beneath the skin, taking the breast and the nipple and the areola but leaving most of the skin. This would constitute a skin sparing mastectomy, where the skin is spared for the plastic surgeon. Sometimes even the nipple and areola can be saved, and this would be known as a nipple sparing mastectomy.