Comparison of the clinical efficacy of body surface mapping plus wire-guided localization and body surface mapping plus methylene blue-guided localization in occult breast lesions

Accurate preoperative and intra-operative localization of occult breast lesions is important. We aimed to compare the clinical efficacy of body surface mapping plus wire-guided localization (BWL) and body surface mapping plus methylene blue-guided localization (BML) in occult breast lesions. Patient samples were obtained from the Xuzhou Central Hospital from 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2020. A total of 315 patients with a single occult breast lesion were included, comprising 225 cases in the BWL group and 90 cases in the BML group, were eligible for this study. We found that the average localization time in the BWL group was significantly greater than in the BML group (2.9 min vs. 1.6 min), while no significant difference was observed in the degree of pain, which was mild, between the two groups (average score, 1.3 vs. 1.5, respectively). The localization success rate and surgical resection rate were 100% in both groups. In addition, no significant difference was observed between the BWL group and BML group in terms of the average time of surgery (8.5 min vs. 9.8 min), the subjective difficulty of surgery, which was easy in both groups (average score, 2.1 vs. 2.4), and the average volume of surgical specimens (1.8 mL vs. 2.4 mL). Further, in the follow-up 3 months after surgery, the resection rate of lesions was 100%, and both groups demonstrated similar cosmetic effect scores. These findings indicated that both BWL and BML have the advantages of accurate localization, high resection rate, few adverse reactions, and excellent cosmetic effects in patients with occult breast lesions. Although both localization methods might be suitable for hospitals in remote areas, our results indicated that BML might be relatively simpler and more economical.