Comparison of analog and digitally evaluated volume of the female breast in reconstructive breast surgery. Validation of a noninvasive measurement method with 3D camera1.

Background: Reconstructive surgery is established as a standard treatment option after mastectomy due to cancer. It is crucial to patients to achieve a natural and symmetric looking breast through reconstruction. Anthropometric measurements are used to assess the objective symmetry of the breast, which are prone to errors and difficult to reproduce.

Objective: The aim of this work is to validate breast volumetry using three-dimensional surface imaging.

Methods: We compared preoperatively analog and digitally evaluated volume of the breast with our gold standard, direct water displacement measurement of the mastectomy specimen. We examined 34 breast specimens in total.

Results: Each measurement method (Breast Sculptor, VAM, Breast-V) for breast volume/mass determination demonstrates acceptable agreement ranges when compared with resected volumes and masses. The strongest volumetry instrument is Breast Sculptor (digital), the weakest is Breast-V (analog).

Conclusions: 3D surface imaging is a quick, effective, and convenient method to evaluate breast shape and volume. The accuracy, reproducibility, and reliability of 3D surface imaging were comparable with MRI in our study.This takes us a step closer to the long-term goal of establishing robust instruments to plan breast reconstructive surgery, achieve better surgical results, and contribute to quality assurance in breast surgery.