Prophylactic surgery

Prophylactic surgery (also known as preventive surgery or risk-reducing surgery), is a form of surgery whose purpose is to minimize or prevent the risk of developing cancer in an organ or gland that has yet to develop cancer and is known to be at high risk of developing cancer. This form of preventive healthcare may include surgeries such as mastectomies, oophorectomies, colectomies and surgical corrections, such as the surgical correction of cryptorchidism or undescended testis. Another less common definition of prophylactic surgery also includes the prevention of other diseases, outcomes or even future appearance. Throughout most of history, preventive medical techniques have been largely ignored and mostly only relegated to scarce occurrences. Despite the prevalence of diseases such as syphilis, leprosy and the black plague throughout the late Middle Ages, the concepts of preventive medicine was largely ignored despite advancements in quarantining and sanitary techniques. Furthermore, the high mortality rate of surgeries both during and post-operation deemed these procedures to be too high of a risk to take for a preventive measure. This changed however with the introduction of anesthesia, advancements in anatomy and with the introduction anti-septic or aseptic techniques alongside further advancements in sanitary techniques in the 19th to 20th century allowed surgeons to consider prophylactic surgeries without running the high risks previously experienced. One may choose to undergo prophylactic surgery if they believe that it is within their best interest to undergo a procedure in order to remove a high-risk organ or gland. There are several types of preventable surgeries that are known to substantially decrease the risk of future disease. Since prophylactic surgeries are usually permanent and irreversible, the pros and cons must be carefully weighed by individuals considering the procedure. There is a whole myriad of ethical, physiological and psychological considerations to be made before taking such a procedure.

À propos de ce résultat

Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.

Publications associées (3)

Concepts associés (5)

Tissue deformation algorithm to estimate breast tumor location from prone-to-supine position

Nearly 15-40% of patients who undergo Breast Conserving Surgery (BCS) require a repeat procedure to ensure complete removal of the tumor resulting in increased healthcare costs and possible negative psychological impact on the patient. To ensure complete t ...

2020

Cell lineage tracing in human tissues using somatic mitochondrial mutations

Paul Refinetti

Lineage tracing is a basic concept in developmental biology, as well as diseases related to organ development. A reliable method to track cell lineages in human tissues has the potential to greatly contribute to the fields of oncogenesis, tissue renewal, a ...

EPFL2017

Towards higher precision in instrument guided liver surgery: automatic registration of 3D ultrasound with pre-operative MeVis-CT

Delphine Ribes Lemay, Matthias Peterhans

Purpose Liver cancer is the 5 most common cancer and shows poor prognosis. Surgical removal of liver tumours, the only existing curative treatment, can merely be used in 10-20% of the case. Increasing surgical precision is a key-challenge to give more pati ...

2012

BRCA mutation

A BRCA mutation is a mutation in either of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are tumour suppressor genes. Hundreds of different types of mutations in these genes have been identified, some of which have been determined to be harmful, while others have no proven impact. Harmful mutations in these genes may produce a hereditary breast–ovarian cancer syndrome in affected persons. Only 5–10% of breast cancer cases in women are attributed to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations (with BRCA1 mutations being slightly more common than BRCA2 mutations), but the impact on women with the gene mutation is more profound.

Hereditary cancer syndrome

A hereditary cancer syndrome (familial/family cancer syndrome, inherited cancer syndrome, cancer predisposition syndrome, cancer syndrome, etc.) is a genetic disorder in which inherited genetic mutations in one or more genes predispose the affected individuals to the development of cancer and may also cause early onset of these cancers. Hereditary cancer syndromes often show not only a high lifetime risk of developing cancer, but also the development of multiple independent primary tumors.

Annexectomie

L'annexectomie est l’ablation chirurgicale d’une trompe de Fallope et de l’ovaire (anatomie) correspondant. Il s’agit donc de l’ablation d’un ovaire et de la trompe de Fallope (salpynx) qui lui est associée. En anatomie, une annexe est un élément qui dépend d’un organe principal. Concernant l’anatomie des organes féminins il s’agit des deux annexes (droite et gauche) de l’utérus (trompes de Fallope, ovaires, ligament large). Le terme d’annexectomie est composé avec le suffixe grec ἐκτομή, ektomê qui désigne une excision, une ablation.