Patients suffering from higher stages of breast cancer may have to undergo mastectomy as a possible way of treatment. When told about this, most people have a common question. What exactly is mastectomy? This is a process undertaken by the doctors to completely remove or remove a section of the infected area. In this case, it could be removal of infected breast tissues of one or both. Fortunately, medical science has reached a level where artificial implants can then be conducted to reconstruct these parts thereby allowing the woman to live a normal life after treatment.

As we all know, all across the world, women are getting infected by breast cancer at a high rate. So much so that is has now become the most common form of cancer for them. Treatments for the same are many but not all of them are hundred percent effective. Nevertheless, they are worth a try as along with the failed cases, there are those which have been a success. Depending upon the size and spread of the tumor and the cancer cells, surgery would become eminent. However, which type of surgery needs to be conducted depends on various factors which an expert of this field would be better able to explain.

If cancer has been detected in the early stages, the chances of survival (subject to the patient not suffering from any other clinical disease) are very high and with delays, the probability of a success decrease. If the bad cells spread throughout the body, there is no medically known way in which the condition may be recovered from. The only last resort is mastectomy for which, a more elaborate form of the following steps would be taken by the doctors.

a) Proper tests necessary for evaluation of what actually needs to be done is taken up. Scans are done to get images of the tumor along with its location which helps the doctors derive a plan of action. Once these plans are made, only then can the surgery be done.

b) The second step involves performing the mastectomy operation. Either a simple or a radical mastectomy may be performed. A simple mastectomy would mean removal of only the breasts while in radical; the chest muscles may also be removed.

c) Once the operation has been done and the cancerous tumor removed, artificial implantation for reconstructing the breast to provide the original body structure is undertaken.

Mastectomy may sound simple but in reality it is just the opposite. Even after the successful operation, there are some precautions that need to be taken until full recovery has been made. For one, no physical exertion should be done. In order to avoid any infections, hygienic conditions have to be maintained along with proper medications in place. Some may suffer from instances of depression. This is pretty common keeping in mind the trauma undergone and hence, a moral boost at all times is advised - often in combination with mastectomy lingerie. In some cases, the doctors might require the patient to visit for a last chemotherapy and normality to life may come in a couple of months past the operation.