St Thomas’ surgeons operated on three months’ worth of breast cancer patients in just five days, some of whom had been waiting for over a year for surgery.
Plastic surgeons at St Thomas’ Hospital carried out reconstructive surgery on 22 patients who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, were breast cancer gene carriers, or both.
Many had been on the waiting list for over a year for their reconstructive surgery.
The operations took place using an adapted version of the High-Intensity Theatre (HIT) list method – to maximise the number of patients treated to lessen the backlog of cases.
By increasing the number of staff present in the theatre, HIT lists reduce the turnaround time between cases – which can take up to 95% of the day. This means there’s more time for the surgeon to operate.
They focus on one type of procedure at a time, take place over weekends, and require careful planning to select suitable patients.
Nine of the patients had microsurgical reconstruction to create a new breast using their own tissue, known as an autologous flap.
This is where tissue is taken from the abdomen or upper thighs with blood vessels, disconnected and then re-connected in the chest using microsurgery to create a natural reconstruction.
The team was led by consultant plastic surgeons Pari-Naz Mohanna and Maleeha Mughal, with the support of Paul Roblin, reconstruction specialist nurse Kerri Larnach and plastic surgery service manager, Charlotte Morris.
Guy’s hospital do a week’s worth of surgery in a day to beat backlog
It took months of planning for this adapted HIT list including a special clinic where patients had one-stop consultations with plastic surgeons, anaesthetists and breast cancer reconstruction specialist nurses ahead of their operations.
They were given a presentation by a physiotherapist about post-operative rehabilitation and also had their pre-operative checks.
Surgery lead, Pari-Naz Mohanna said: “We wanted to safely tackle the backlog of reconstructive surgery, whilst continuing to operate on patients with newly diagnosed breast cancers.
“We were inspired by the HIT list model, but we needed to adapt it for longer, more complex procedures whilst ensuring that the highest quality of care was maintained throughout the patient’s journey.
She added that they were ‘truly blessed’ with the enthusiasm and commitment of all the staff involved.