Simple anesthesia for simple mastectomies.

We describe our technique for simple mastectomy under local anesthesia for patients with high anesthetic risk factors, particularly the elderly. Seven patients with a mean age of 88 years (range 80-94 years) with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classes of three or four were given a simple mastectomy using local anesthesia and an intravenous sedative. Blood loss was minimal (mean = 95.7 cm3), as was operating room time (mean = 62 min). Most patients were returned to nursing homes on post-operative day 2. There were no complications related to the procedure.