The outpatient diagnosis of breast lumps.

A plan of management, based on a personal experience of 421 cases, has been developed for the outpatient diagnosis of breast symptoms. In the majority of patients the presence of absence of malignancy can be established with a high degree of certainty before biopsy, and benign masses can be safely excised on an outpatient basis. Only those patients whose breast symptoms and findings suggest malignancy need be admitted to hospital and prepared for major breast surgery. This plan has been shown to be safe, while avoiding unnecessary hospital bed occupancy.